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SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE
Smith Mountain Lake saw increase in boating incidents and deaths in 2025
Boating incidents slightly increased at Smith Mountain Lake last year while declining statewide, according to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources' recently released annual boating incident report.
There were 11 boating incidents at the lake in 2025, including two deaths. In 2024, the lake saw a decade-low nine boating incidents and no deaths.
Although incidents increased slightly, 1st Sgt. Kenneth Williams with the DWR said Smith Mountain Lake had a good year overall when it comes to boating. Of those 11 incidents, five were due to injuries and four were due to property damage only.
While the lake had the most incidents of any body of water in 2025, the number of reported incidents has remained low in recent years. There were 21 reported incidents at SML in 2022 and 20 in 2023.
According to the DWR, a boating incident is reportable if it involves death, a missing person, an injury that needs treatment beyond first aid, or property damage of at least $2,000. Virginia requires operators involved in an incident to immediately notify DWR and provide information to the investigating officer.
Sgt. Mike Morris, left, and 1st Sgt. Kenneth Williams of the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources patrol Smith Mountain Lake before Memorial Day weekend.
What were the deaths last year?
The two fatalities at Smith Mountain Lake last year are more than the zero in 2024 but less than the three boating deaths in 2023.
One of the two fatalities last year occurred on June 10 in Penhook when a Roanoke man jumped from his rental boat to swim to a nearby dock while fishing with friends. Witnesses said he appeared to be struggling and attempted to help before he went under and did not resurface.
The cause of death was determined to be drowning, according to the incident report. The report added that the victim was not wearing a life jacket, had tested positive for cocaine and marijuana, and had a heart condition. All could have been contributing factors to drowning.
A second drowning the same day at Hales Ford Bridge in Moneta was not counted as a fatality in the boating incident report. This was due to the man drowning after jumping from the bridge and not from a boat.
The other reported boating incident death occurred Sept. 15. A 61-year-old man was driving his boat on the lake and had a fatal medical episode — believed to be cardiac arrest — that caused him to lose control of the vessel. The vessel ran aground and eventually came to a stop at a group of trees along the shoreline.
Smith Mountain Lake's fatalities were two of 10 reported statewide from boating incidents in 2025. Virginia reported 17 boating fatalities in 2024.
Putting boating incidents in context
There were 75 boating incidents reported statewide in 2025. Those incidents involved 100 vessels and resulted in 46 injuries, according to the DWR's report.
That's down from 89 boating incidents statewide in 2024. Incidents have traditionally averaged around 85 for the last decade. The biggest outliers were a low of 59 incidents in 2023 and a high of 110 in 2020.
In 2025, as in previous years, the main type of boating incident is collision with other vessels or collision with fixed objects. Williams said this is often due to operators and passengers not keeping a proper lookout of what is around them, as well as inexperienced boaters.
Conservation Police with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources patrol Smith Mountain Lake.
The incident report also noted that in only one of Virginia's 10 boating incident fatalities was the victim wearing a life jacket. Williams encouraged everyone to wear a life jacket while on a boat or even on a dock.
"A life jacket is just a no brainer," he said.
Life jackets come in a wide variety of styles these days, Williams said. Smaller, fanny-pack style life jackets are now available for individuals who may not want to wear the larger, bulky ones while on the water.
While people are not required by law to wear a life jacket at all times while on a boat, Williams said they are one of the best ways to protect someone. Boating incidents can often happen too fast for someone to grab a life jacket. In incidents where there is a collision, a person can be thrown from a boat and become unconscious.
"It is the most important thing to do to ensure you are not going to drown," Williams said of wearing a life jacket.
Boating season ramping up
With weather warming up, Williams said preparations are underway to increase patrols as boating season picks up at Smith Mountain Lake in the coming weeks. He said shifts will increase next month to assure a DWR boat patrols the water six or seven days a week instead of just the weekend in previous years.
"We are gonna have boats out there on just about every day," Williams said, adding there will be multiple boats on the weekends.
As crowds prepare to head back out on the water this spring and summer, Williams encouraged boaters to check to make sure their safety equipment is working properly, including navigation lights and other electronics. Also make sure all life jackets and personal flotation devices are still useable.
Williams also urged boaters to avoid alcohol when operating a vessel and to keep a proper lookout when navigating the lake. Those steps can help decrease the number of boating incidents in 2026.
Jason Dunovant (540) 981-3324
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TOBACCO AND VAPING
Virginia plans crackdown on underage tobacco, vape sales
The exterior of a vape shop is seen on Aug. 28. “Increasing rates of vaping are a concerning and important public health and safety issue as well as a consumer protection issue … vaping threatens to addict a new generation of American youth, much the way that Big Tobacco did for generations before,” Attorney General Jay Jones said Monday.
Legislation that sailed through the General Assembly on near-unanimous votes gives Virginia tough new tools to enforce existing laws on selling tobacco products and vaping products to underage buyers.
The "Vape Enforcement Act" legislation, House Bill 308 and Senate Bill 620, also gives teeth to existing law that says it’s illegal to sell vaping products that haven’t been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and that are on a directory maintained by the Office of the Attorney General.
Jones
“Increasing rates of vaping are a concerning and important public health and safety issue as well as a consumer protection issue … vaping threatens to addict a new generation of American youth, much the way that Big Tobacco did for generations before,” Attorney General Jay Jones said Monday.
“It is illegal in the Commonwealth of Virginia to sell tobacco products to anybody under the age of 21, but up until the passage of the Vape Enforcement Act, there has been no way to enforce that law,” he added.
The bills shift oversight of retail sales of tobacco from the state tax department to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority, which is already responsible for enforcing state law that says only adults over 21 can buy alcoholic drinks.
ABC agents, who the bills say will be conducting unannounced buyer operations on each licensed tobacco and vaping product retailer once every 24 months, are already well-placed to enforce the tougher regulations, said Del. Patrick Hope, D-Arlington, who’s been working on this idea since 2020.
Buyer operations aim to ensure sellers check IDs as required by law.
ABC agents also will be checking to ensure that unlicensed, untaxed vaping products aren't for sale.
Many of them have the kind of sweet flavoring that federal regulators say can hook younger users and can contain other ingredients that pose additional health risks beyond those from nicotine.
“We can ensure that these unregulated products are not sold to customers, and that bad actors are penalized for noncompliance," Hope said.
"There will be consequences for selling to underage. We have an underage of 21 law already in place, but it's just not being enforced in the way that it should. That ends with the passage of this law,” Hope said.
The bills say retailers will need permits from the ABC Authority to sell tobacco products or products with liquid nicotine.
They set record-keeping requirements and auditing requirements, as well.
“And then if they sell to a minor, there'll be random underage checks from ABC, and there'll be fines that start pretty hefty, fines that go up to thousands of dollars. And most importantly, if they do it repeatedly, they lose their license to sell these products,” said former state Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, who’s campaigned for years for tougher underage sales laws.
“That's a pretty significant penalty,” he said.
A first violation of the ban on selling to underage buyers is subject to a fine of $1,000, a second to a fine of $5,000 and a third to a fine of $10,000.
Selling tobacco products or vapes without an ABC permit also would be subject to stiff fines, as would selling vaping products not on the Attorney General’s directory.
“You and I see them in our neighborhoods on a daily basis, these illicit shops that are selling illegal products to kids," said state Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, who carried the Senate bill when Ebbin left to take over as senior advisor at the Cannabis Control Authority.
"The Vape Enforcement Act really finally gives us the tools to put an end to that, which I think is really exciting and really promising.”
Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, and Del. Patrick Hope, D-Arlington, confer at the General Assembly on March 13. ABC agents, who will be conducting unannounced buyer operations on each licensed tobacco and vaping product retailer once every 24 months according to the "Vape Enforcement Act" legislation, are already well-placed to enforce the tougher regulations, said Hope.
“One of the craziest statistics that I heard when I really got into the weeds of this process was that the number of vape stores that were registered with the government through tax is 52, and I joke that I think there's 52 vape shops on Staples Mill Road alone,” he added.
Separately, Altria Group said it has started marketing its new "on! PLUS" nicotine pouches nationwide.
Altria had been selling the product in Florida, North Carolina and Texas.
The "on! PLUS" pouches are the first product authorized through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s pilot program designed to expedite the review of nicotine pouch products.
Dave Ress (804) 649-6948
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