Holiday weekend: 20 BUIs statewide, 5 on Lanier

The state ended the long Labor Day weekend Sunday night at midnight after recording 20 BUI arrests statewide, five on Lake Lanier; three boating accidents with two injuries; and one fatality, a drowning on Lanier that occurred Saturday.

That’s according to a report from the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which was released Tuesday morning.

Details:

Region 1 – Lake Allatoona – Boat Incident – On Sunday, September 1^st, GA Game Wardens responded to a personal watercraft (PWC) incident in which a 13-year-old female drove between a vessel and a tube that was being towed. The PWC struck the rope causing the tube to contact the PWC. The towed person suffered what appear to be minor abdominal injuries and has been transported to Kennestone Hospital for evaluation.

Region 1 – West Point Lake – Boat Incident – On Monday, September 2^nd, at approximately 6:00 p.m., GA Game Wardens responded to boating incident on West Point Lake near Pyne Road Park in Troup County. Once on scene, they learned that a 28-year-old female had taken a bad fall while wakeboarding. She was transported to the Pyne Road Park boat ramp where she was evaluated by Troup County EMS and subsequently flown to a medical center in Columbus for further evaluations.

Region 2 – Lake Lanier – Drowning – Just before 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 31st, GA DNR Game Wardens, along with Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, Forsyth County Fire, and Hall County Fire, responded to a drowning at Bethel Park on Lake Lanier. A 46-year-old male was swimming from shore back to his boat when he went under and did not resurface. Soon after they arrived, game wardens were able to locate the subject in approximately 25 feet of water using boat mounted sonar. He was recovered using Hall County Fire’s Remote Operated Vessel (ROV) and Forsyth County Fire divers. The victim was identified as Hasani Kamau Widemond, age 46, of Vinings.

Region 6 – Tybee Island – Boat Incident – On Saturday, August 31st, GA DNR Game Wardens responded to a boating incident on Tybee Island in Chatham County where two jet skis collided. No injuries were reported.

(Pictured: Lake Lanier, courtesy Corps of Engineers)

About the Author

Ken Stanford is Online News Editor for GLORY 97.5, a position he has held since August 2022.

Ken was born in Moultrie, Georgia, and says he knew from the time he was 5 or 6 he wanted to be a “radio announcer.” That dream was realized when he was hired by Moultrie radio station WMTM in 1960 at the age of 15 as a weekend disc jockey. A 1963 graduate of Moultrie (now Colquitt County) High School, he has spent his whole career in Georgia working for stations in Atlanta, Marietta, and Gainesville – most recently as News Director for 40 years at WDUN in Gainesville. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force Reserves.

Ken retired in 2011 but came out of retirement last year to help GLORY, on a part-time basis, beef-up its online news presence.

He is the recipient of many Associated Press awards and is a former judge of state and national Associated Press broadcast news contests. In 2005, he was presented with the Georgia Associated Press Broadcasters Association’s President’s Award for Excellence in Journalism and in 2019 was inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame.

He lives in Gainesville with his wife of 52 years, the former Sandra McKnight of Clio, Alabama, and they have one child, a daughter, Lisa, who lives in Cumming with her family.