Two boats collided at Buffalo Springs Lake Sunday evening that cause a one-year-old child to go missing. Authorities confirmed the child was found days later, floating in the water.
Related Link: Body of Missing Child Recovered at Buffalo Springs Lake
“Well I’m very sad, it’s terrible that that all happened,” Buffalo Springs lake Resident David Hamilton said. “In the eight years I’ve been here that’s the first boating fatality I’ve heard of.”
Hamilton said this area become filled with boaters and visitors on the weekends, causing other accidents in the past. However, he said he does not fear for his safety from the patrol units in the area.
“In fact we have more police officers out here than you can justify during the week,” Hamilton said. “But during the weekends they augment it with volunteer police officers.”
Buffalo Springs Lake has the service of a police department, volunteer fire department, and Texas Game Wardens for 24-hour surveillance.
Texas Game Wardens said they are primary agency for water safety in public areas. Their responsibility also includes educating other law enforcement agencies on marine water safety for enforcement throughout the areas. Therefore, it is a mixture of Buffalo Springs Police and game wardens patrolling consistently at Buffalo Springs Lake.
“We work very closely with the officers out there at Buffalo Springs Lake, particularly when the traffic is heavy,” Texas Game Warden Lubbock District Captain Aryn Corley said. “They do have special events out there from time to time so the increased law enforcement presence. It would be more of a corporative effort. It would be both us and Buffalo Springs together.”
Corely recommends life jackets at all times for the top safety top for anyone out in the water.
“Anybody that wants to come out to Buffalo Springs Lake and go boating, I highly encourage having all of the required safety equipment, but most importantly life jackets,” Corley said. “There has to be one life jacket for each person aboard, children that are 12 years and younger have to have them on and the life jack has to be appropriate for the size of the individual wearing it.”
