Marine patrol gears up to monitor speed limits
By PAULA TRACY
New Hampshire Union Leader Staff
9 hours, 22 minutes ago
GILFORD Â The New Hampshire Marine Patrol is working on implementing speed limits on two zones of Lake Winnipesaukee for this summer, but Director Dave Barrett said yesterday there are currently more questions than answers.
Boaters will face a 45 mph limit by day and 25 mph limit by night in two large zones near Rattlesnake and Bear Islands. Barrett said he is unsure if tickets will be issued and how his officers will be able to properly notify boaters they are in a speed limit zone.
Currently, there are no speed limits on the state lakes. Last spring, the New Hampshire House of Representatives passed a boat speed limit 193-139 but the measure lost in the Senate.
The House Transportation Committee took up a similar bill this year, but last month voted 9-7 to study how such a law would work in two test zones for a summer.
A boater speeds boat across Lake Winnipesaukee at approximately 90 mph. Although the Legislature has not imposed statewide speed limits for New Hampshire lakes, the state will begin a pilot program this year to test their viability. (ELYSE BUTLER)
One of the areas chosen for study is an area on Lake Winnipesaukee between Rattlesnake Island and the southwest shore in Alton.
The zone will begin on the southeast shore of Rattlesnake Island and go to the southwest corner of the Minge Cove Inlet, Barrett said. The other end of the zone is from the northwest corner of Rattlesnake Island to Sleepers Point. The pilot speed zone includes Treasure Island and Sleepers Island.
The second pilot zone is in the area of Bear Island off Meredith Neck. The zone will begin from the northwest end of the no-wake zone for Bear Island's mail dock and continue southeast to floating light buoy Number 3 at Horse Island, Barrett said. There are no inhabited islands in that zone.
"One thing these two areas have going for them is the majority of the traffic goes one way or the other, which kind of separates it from other areas of the lake where traffic is going in all directions," Barrett said. In other locations, he said it would be much harder to run radar and collect data.
The department currently has three radar guns, and the department is training officers to use them, Barrett said.
"We will use radar to determine speeds. It will work. It doesn't work as well as on the highway but it will work," Barrett said.
"We have sufficient units to do this pilot. We do not have enough if they enact the law," he said.
"The boating season runs from ice-out until October. We won't be ready to go until June with this at the earliest," he said.
The test period runs through the summer months and Barrett said it is his plan to give the data collected to the House Transportation Committee by November.
"We are going to talk about the effectiveness of it, the time spent, what the percentage of boat traffic is (exceeding limits) and what time was spent on it. This is not going to be just the number of tickets issued," he said.
Advocates for a boat speed law said the pilot program is an unnecessary delay.
Opponents of boat speed limits said there is no need for the study because statistics indicate there are no high-speed collisions between boats on state lakes in recent years.
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