BOULDER CITY, Nev. - The National Park Service is encouraging people to be heroes this Father’s Day by keeping themselves, their friends, and their family safe at Lake Mead National Recreation Area. You can do this by ensuring that everyone wears a life jacket in the water, by leaving the pool toys and floats home, and by not mixing swimming with alcohol.
Father’s Day is one of the most dangerous days of the year at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, with five fathers drowning over the last six years. In all of these incidents, none of the victims were wearing a life jacket. Life jackets are required on all vessels and are strongly recommended even when entering the water from shore.
Pool toys and floats are not a substitute for life jackets and may contribute to drownings. Winds pick up quickly and without warning and blow these toys into deep water where people can drown attempting to recover them. Be a hero by leaving these toys in the pools where they belong.
Alcohol should never be mixed with swimming. Consumption of alcohol slows your reaction time, impairs motor skills, and harms judgement and reasoning. Stay safe, and keep your family safe, by swimming sober.
Do your part to be a hero this Father’s Day and insist on safety. For more information on swimming at Lake Mead National Recreation Area please visit: Swimming - Lake Mead National Recreation Area (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
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Lake Mead National Recreation Area is the only national park minutes from Las Vegas that offers Joshua trees, slot canyons and night skies illuminated by the Milky Way. The park’s rocks are as red as fire and the mountains are purple majesties. Lake Mead is the country’s first and largest national recreation area and the fifth most visited national park in the country. Follow us at www.nps.gov/lake or on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
