Oklahoma Highway Lake Patrol Getting Ready For Memorial Day Weekend

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol is firing up their boats for one of the busiest weekends of the year.

Even with rain in the forecast, troopers say they expect to see a lot of people on the water for Memorial Day Weekend.

Oklahoma Highway Lake Patrol said they’re not going to go easy on boaters this weekend because people’s safety is too important to take lightly.

Trooper Shaun Vann is one of the troopers cruising Skiatook Lake for people not practicing water safety over Memorial Day weekend. He said he will mostly be looking for people’s license and registration, life jackets, fire extinguishers, and checking for driver intoxication.

“If we do pull you over on the boat, we will ask to see registration make sure your boat is safe and have your safety equipment,” Vann said. “Life jackets, fire extinguishers, and other things that could really hurt someone if you don’t have the right safety equipment.”

He said they aren’t doing this to stop your Memorial Day fun they just want people don’t get hurt.

“We want everyone to be safe the last thing we want to do to this Memorial Day weekend is drag somebody out from the bottom of the lake,” Vann said.

With thunderstorms predicted throughout the weekend, Vann said the overall injury threat is higher. If you do see a storm rolling in, he said to start heading in, so you don’t get caught behind everyone else trying to beat the storm at the same time. Lightning can strike ahead of storms, so he said to not take the chance of getting struck while in the water.

If you do run into trouble on the water, you can call 911 or dial *55 to get an Oklahoma Lake Patrol boat to you quickly.