National Safe Boating Week May 16-22Recent drownings tragically reinforce safe boating message: Wear It!
MADISON – The drowning last week of two men on a northwestern Wisconsin lake just prior to National Safe Boating Week tragically reinforces what state boating safety specialists say is the key message of this national observance: Wear It! Wear your life jacket.
“There are so many reasons people give for not wearing life jackets,” says Cathy Burrow, who works with Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources boating safety program. “‘It’s too hot!’ ‘It doesn’t look cool.’ ‘I know how to swim.’ ‘Nothing is going to happen to me.’ But with 20 drowning deaths in Wisconsin last year and now four confirmed drownings already this year, it’s pretty clear there are no good excuses for not wearing a life jacket.”
The theme of the 2009 National Safe Boating Week, which runs May 16 through 22, is “Wear It!”
www.safeboatingcampaign.com and the campaign is focused primarily on getting people to wear life jackets, along with encouraging safe and responsible boating, staying alert, aware and sober while on the water, and taking boating safety education classes.
“Much like a helmet to a biker or skate boarder, life jackets are an essential part of boating safety equipment and should be worn at all times while on the water,” Burrow said. “Life jackets are no longer the orange, hot and bulky vests of years gone by, new innovations and developments have produced a smaller, sleeker, and much more comfortable version of a life jacket, leaving you with no reason not to wear them.”
Modern life jackets, also called PFDs or personal flotation devices, allow more mobility and flexibility for boating, fishing, paddling and hunting and are much cooler in the warmer weather.
Of the 20 boating fatalities in Wisconsin last year, 80 percent were not wearing their life jackets. Neither of the two men who drowned early in the morning of May 7 after their boat overturned on Lake Wapogasset in Polk County were wearing life jackets. A woman who was with the men had a life jacket and was able to reach shore and survived.
In addition to wearing life jackets, Burrow suggests that all people operating boats should take a boating safety course. The course is required for anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 1989, to legally operate a boat on Wisconsin waters. Direct classroom instruction from volunteer instructors is offered across the state. Information on classes can be found on the upcoming classes and locations page of the DNR Web site. In addition two online courses are available (see accompanying story).
https://hfwolf.centraltechnology.net/wdnr/laam.nsf/publicHSClasses?OpenFormMore information about boating safety and boating safety
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/es/enforcement/safety/boatsaf.htm education
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/es/enforcement/safety/boated.htm is available on the DNR Web site.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Cathy Burrow – (608) 266-8597
