SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Despite the extreme heat forecast for Labor Day Weekend, Sacramento County Regional Parks officials are preparing for a busy holiday weekend on area rivers.
"We’re going to be out here to make sure everybody has a good time and is safe this weekend," said Commander David Spencer with the law enforcement division of the department.
Labor Day marks the last major holiday weekend of the season, following Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, when alcohol is banned on much of the county's waterways.
While the holiday brings the unofficial end of summer, it also brings families by the hundreds to the riverside. Safety officials will step up patrols on the banks and in the water.
"We don’t want to lose anymore lives on the river this year, and that’s our main goal," Spencer said.
The commander was on scene as rangers recovered a body from the river this week, in a grim reminder of the dangers that lie just below the water's surface.
"Yeah, that’s terrible," said Danny Osterude, who drove an hour and a half from Richmond to Rancho Cordova to cool off in the river with his dog, Dover.
"People have got to be careful, you know? The water is no joke, especially with the current," Osterude said.
Osterude said he was especially cautious on the river after a friend's son drowned last year.
"He was just a kid. He just went out on Lake Berryessa and next thing you know he’s gone. Everything was fine, then gone," Osterude said.
Public safety officials say the most important thing swimmers can do is to wear a life vest; most drowning victims were not wearing one.
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