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Lewisville Lake NOT the deadliest in Texas
BY DAN EAKIN, Staff Writer
Even though some newspapers and radio stations continue to report that Lewisville Lake is the deadliest in Texas, this is not the case, according to James Kunke, city community relations manager.
Kunke said city staff conducted research and found that Lake Conroe and Lake Travis has had more fatalities than Lewisville Lake or any other of the lakes in Texas.
Lewisville Lake received significant attention statewide after four people drowned over the extended July Fourth weekend.
During the past 20 years, an estimated 40 million people n more than two million per year -- have visited Lewisville Lake. During that time, Kunke said, there have been a total of 87 accidental deaths.
The drownings last weekend occurred in Little Elm on the north side of the lake, in Lewisville east of Interstate 35, and in Highland Village to the west.
“During the summer of 1993, a state game warden was quoted in a newspaper article calling Lewisville Lake the most deadly lake in the state,” Kunke said in an e-mail. “That moniker has lingered to this day. Officially, the state does not provide that type of comparative information.”
Kunke said city staff conducted research in 2007, using state medical examiner records, and found that at least two other Texas lakes reported more annual drownings than Lewisville.
Those lakes are Lake Conroe just north of Houston and Lake Travis just north of Austin, Kunke said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stated in 2003 that Lewisville Lake ranked among the top three Corps-operated reservoirs in Texas in terms of the number of annual drownings, although the annual number of incidents has dropped since then, Kunke said.
Between 1999 and 2004, according to information provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, there were 25 fatalities on Lake Travis, 21 on Lake Conroe and 17 on Lewisville Lake.
Later reports were not available for Lake Travis and Lake Conroe. A total of 13 fatalities have been reported on Lewisville Lake between 2005 and 2008, including two in 2005, six in 2006, one in 2007 and four in 2008.
Lewisville Lake is located 15 minutes north of downtown Dallas along Interstate 35E. Created in 1954 on the Elm Fork of the Trinity River, the water reaches depths up to 67 feet, with an average depth of 25 feet during “normal” operations. It is surrounded by more than 9,000 acres of protected natural habitat. Cities bordering the lake have a combined population of more than 300,000 people.
Lake Lewisville is a Corps of Engineers reservoir that is immensely popular for water sports and outdoor recreation in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Four marinas and 16 public boat ramps offer access to the lake. About a dozen public parks are on the lake shores.
The lake’s waters are patrolled by the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife, U.S. Corps of Engineers, Coast Guard Auxiliary and Denton County Sheriff’s Office. The Lewisville Fire Department operates two boats on the lake and has primary rescue and recovery responsibility. Since the start of 2004, the Lewisville Fire Department has responded to more than 1,000 calls on the lake, including stranded boats, boat accidents, drownings, boat fires, dive requests, rescues, mutual aid calls, medical emergencies and general assists.
According to state officials, about 300 people drown in Texas each year in various bodies of water, including lakes.
The chart below shows the distribution of accidental deaths during the past 12 years, as obtained by city staff through Lewisville Fire Department records and newspaper archives.
1997 n 1
1998 n 6
1999 n 1
2000 n 1
2001 n 9
2002 n 6
2003 n 6
2004 n 1
2005 n 2
2006 n 6
2007 n 1
2008 n 4
The greatest number of drownings in any single year at Lewisville Lake was in 2001, the year that six people died in a single incident in which an unlicensed and intoxicated driver drove his family into the water.
Although no comprehensive research has been conducted, newspaper records show that a large percentage of these accidents were alcohol-related, Kunke said. A smaller but significant percentage involved children swimming without adult supervision or in restricted areas outside of marked swimming beaches.
During 2006, for example, alcohol is believed to have been involved in at least three of the six accidental deaths. Two other deaths were related to unsafe boating, and one to unsafe operation of a personal watercraft.
Kunke noted that the lake has developed a reputation as an outstanding fishing lake, possibly the premier urban lake for sport fishing. Lewisville Lake is rated as “excellent” by Texas Parks & Wildlife for catfish, crappie and white bass, and “good” for largemouth bass and striped/hybrid bass. It has been the site of four major BASS fishing tournaments since 2005, and has been home to the Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship since 2006.
Contact Dan Eakin at 972-628-4075 or at deakin@acnpapers.com. Comment on this story at scntx.com.
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