Mother urges sober boating as July Fourth weekend nears in Maryland

Marie Barton is urging Baltimore-area boaters to stay sober as the July Fourth weekend approaches, two years after her son Nick died in a crash on the West River in Anne Arundel County near Parrish Creek. The boat struck a piling on June 4, 2022, and six people were thrown into the water. The captain was charged with negligent manslaughter after authorities concluded he was boating under the influence.

Nick’s Law, which became Chapter 418 of the 2024 Maryland laws and took effect July 1, 2024, gives courts more power to keep impaired boaters off the water. A judge can prohibit a person convicted of boating under the influence from operating a vessel for up to two years, or up to five years if the case involved a death. The law also requires the Department of Natural Resources, working with the Natural Resources Police, to create and maintain a database of people barred from operating vessels because of qualifying BUI convictions.

Barton pushed for the measure because officers can use the record to check whether a boater has prior BUI problems before letting that person take the helm, much like a traffic-stop license check.

The Fourth of July weekend is the busiest boating holiday of the year and one of the most dangerous times on Maryland’s waterways. In 2024, Operation Dry Water ran July 4-6 with saturation patrols across nearly every county. Alcohol use is the leading known contributing factor in fatal boating incidents, and more than 90% of Maryland’s fatal boating accident victims in the prior five years were not wearing life jackets.

Maryland’s 2025 boating accident statistics list 7,719 miles of shoreline and 160,409 registered vessels, and alcohol-related accidents remain a recurring part of the crash picture from 2019 through 2025.