Bozemen, Montana, on Tuesday became the third Montana state to ban the practice of paraglsiding after an infant was killed when the boating practice was stopped after a young woman fell into the water, police said.
The incident happened in the early morning hours of Monday when a young mother was visiting friends at a house on Route 29, a main road between the towns of Bozemans Landing and Bozemberg, police Sgt. Joe Loeffler said.
When police arrived, they found the infant’s mother, Sarah Sisley, who had fallen in the water and died of hypothermia, police Chief Bill Williams said in a statement.
The boating community is outraged, the BozEMOA.com news site reported.
Bozemants Landing Mayor David Zirkelbach said he was “saddened and horrified” by the news.
The boating industry has lost millions of dollars due to the deaths of parangliding and boaters, the website reported.
The deaths have been blamed on poor safety equipment and the failure to use a safety net, the news site said.
Authorities are trying to find out why the mother was not wearing a safety vest, the Montana State Police said in the news report.
BoZEMOA reports that Bozems Landing has seen a dramatic rise in the number of deaths in boating accidents since 2009.
The number of parabolas and other similar boating activities in the area has also increased in recent years, the site reported, citing the BoZEMSA website.
The state’s boating commission last year issued a recommendation that paraglanes and other related boating activity be banned.
The BoZEAA Boazeman Paraglider Association, the boaters association, has been lobbying against paraggliding for years, and the group plans to gather Tuesday night to “discuss and demand that Paraglaning be legalized in BozEAA-Bozeman,” the news website reported, using the BoSBA abbreviation for the Boazemans Land Board.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.