WATERWAYS `LIKE HIGHWAYS' DRINKING AND BOATING DON'T MIX, OFFICIALS WARN

CONROE -- Julia Hart has trouble talking about her grandson, Joseph,
without losing her composure.

Her husband, Fred, prefers to leave on an errand rather than be present
during a discussion that conjures up a brutally painful memory.

But Julia Hart is willing to lay bare her emotional wounds for a moment so
that other families might be spared the suffering inflicted on hers.

She wants her two daughters and her grandson to be more than three more
digits added to the count of boating deaths recorded by state and federal
authorities. She wants boat operators who drink while cruising the
waterways to know how their behavior can shred lives in an instant.

Her family was celebrating Joseph's first birthday on a cloudy, moonless
night July 17 aboard a 28-foot Bayliner cabin cruiser on Lake Conroe.

About 9:45 p.m., a high-performance Wellcraft ski boat powered by a V-8
engine roared out of the night and smashed into the slow-moving cabin
cruiser, tearing through the hull and eviscerating the cabin below decks.

The impact ripped three loved ones from the Harts' lives: Joseph and his
mother, 28-year old Lonni Grisby of Montgomery, who had wanted to open a
Christian bookstore; and 39-year-old Jewel Brown from Walker County, a
dance teacher who delighted her mother with small surprises and seemed to
spread cheer wherever she went.

Hart declined to discuss the collision because the criminal case resulting
from it has not come to trial.

She and her husband were treated for minor injuries at a local hospital, as
was Kenneth Flemon, 39, Brown's boyfriend, also from Montgomery.

Reginald Morris, 44, of Plantersville was indicted last month on three
counts of intoxication manslaughter. He is free on $60,000 bond.

Investigators reported finding a blood alcohol level of more than 0.1
percent in Morris, who they say was piloting the ski boat. At the time, 0.1
percent was the legal level for intoxication, but a law lowering the limit
to 0.08 took effect this week.

Morris underwent reconstructive surgery for facial injuries suffered in the
collision.

"My life has been ruined," said Hart, 59, a recruiting consultant who lives
with her 60-year-old husband, a maintenance contractor, in the Snug Harbor
community on Lake Conroe.

"They were loved and they were cherished," she said of her children. Her
grandson "was the love of my life, and he gave me so much pleasure."

She said her remaining child, Jim Hart, 37, of Houston is so embittered
that he can't discuss the accident.

Authorities say recreational boating has increased dramatically nationwide,
and with it the use of alcohol. That's especially true, they say, on the
Labor Day weekend.

"The waterways have become so congested that the same problems that you
have on the road don't stop at the shoreline anymore," said U.S. Coast
Guard spokesman Jack O'Dell.

The number of boats in use nationwide has grown from 7.67 million in the
1970s to more than 12 million, with more than 70 million people using the
waterways, he said.

So far, there is no measure of congestion, but O'Dell said: "Everybody
recognizes that it's more congested. Most waterways are getting like
highways and streets."

Boaters are advised to use particular caution this Labor Day, because of
low water levels caused by a lack of rain. The Houston Police Department
advises that the level of Lake Houston is between 2 and 4 feet below
normal, increasing the risk of boats running aground.

Carlos Vaca, boating administrator for the Texas Parks and Wildlife
Commission, says the number of boats registered in Texas has remained close
to 600,000 since 1995.

But, said Reed Eichelberger, manager of surface water operation for the San
Jacinto River Authority, "If the state registration is about the same, that
doesn't mean use on (Lake Conroe) hasn't gone up."

Alcohol use is increasing along with boat use, and it's more dangerous on
the water than on the road, O'Dell said. A study by the Boat U.S. Safety
Foundation in Arlington, Va., found that 53 percent of all night boating
accidents in 1992-94 involved alcohol.

The most recent figures available from the U.S. Coast Guard show that 223
of 821 boating deaths nationwide in 1997 were alcohol-related.

In Texas that year, 25 of 72 boating deaths, or about 35 percent, were
alcohol-related. Last year, although the number of boating deaths dropped
to 55, 24 of them, or about 44 percent, were identified as alcohol-related.

Boats can be more dangerous to operate than cars, O'Dell said, because
boats can approach from any direction. Moreover, it's more difficult to
judge distance on the water, said Montgomery County sheriff's Lt. Joe
Menville, who heads a county marine enforcement team on Lake Conroe.

Compounding the danger is the light construction of most boats.

"Cars are built with a certain amount of impact absorbers in walls and
doors that, on impact, absorb a great deal of the blow," O'Dell said. "You
don't have that in boats. If two boats hit each other, nothing is going to
absorb the impact except the people on the boat."

Dangerous boat operation also stems from lack of knowledge.

"About half of the accidents and deaths result from people who have never
had boating safety education," said Jim Ellis, program manager for the Boat
U.S. Safety Foundation. "In most states you can walk into a dealership,
plop your money down and hop on the water the same day."

Texas requires boating instruction only for those born after Sept. 1, 1984,
and the age will rise to 18 by 2002. The law also requires that rental
operators provide instruction, but there are no other requirements for
operating a boat in Texas.

Alabama is one of the few states that require a license to operate a boat,
a law well-received since it went into effect in April, said Bill Garner,
director of that state's Marine Police Division.

The law was enacted in 1994 after two boating accidents took the lives of
three children. Alabamians can take a boating test when they apply for a
driver's license or they can show proof that they have taken an approved
safety course.

The Texas Legislature considered a licensing law in 1997, but passed a
version limiting instruction to those under 18.

But boaters in Texas are subject to the same drinking-and-driving laws as
those operating a car. As of Sept. 1, the legal drinking limit is now .08
percent blood alcohol, compared to .10 before.

Julia Hart wants officials to take measures to ensure that boat operators
are qualified -- perhaps requiring a permit or setting stiffer fines.

"If we have people who are driving too fast and drunk," she said, referring
to boaters, "then that's the potential for another disaster and tragedy,
and I would like for people to know that we're not going to tolerate it."