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Commander
- Joined
- May 31, 2002
- Messages
- 2,842
Re: Always wear your life jacket in the water!!!
Bubba and Mudskunk have it right. If you feel the need to carry an iron umbrella to avoid the chance of getting hit by a meteor, more power to you. Just don't try to force it on everyone else. Wearing a PFD is one of those "feel-good" things that the government has no business in, and should be left to adult discretion. An adult should be able to decide if they want to go for a swim without a PFD. If something happens to them, I'm going to feel bad, but no worse than for the people who died accidently in any other way while participating in activities of their choosing.
There were about 4,000 drownings in the US last year. About 500 of them were boating-related. Just think, we could have prevented about 3,500 deaths if we required anyone who was going near the water (beach, pools, etc) to wear a PFD!
Common sense and personal responsibility should be the deciding factor on adult PFD usage. If you're in a higher risk situation (skiing, tubing, racing, high waves, etc) you're stupid (in my opinion) not to wear one. I'm sure in some people's opinion I'm stupid for not wearing one when I'm idling down the bayou. People swim off my boat without PFD's, they go off the rope swings that the only way to get to is by boat without PFD's, etc. We're also swimming in calm lakes and rivers with no currents, might be different in other situations.
Since none of my friends drink, I never have to worry about alchohol while out on the boat. I believe that alchohol is a MUCH bigger contributer to the risk of drowning than not wearing PFD's. Doesn't bother me if people want to drink and get stupid, I just stay away from them. Just be aware that they're still responsible for their actions that affect themselves and others.
Boating, per capita, is one of the safest activities out there. No need to try to scare people away from it. You're in more danger of dying in your car on your way to the ramp (5 vs 17 deaths per 100,000 vehicle registrations). Another way to look at it is 1 death for every 19,000 registered boats. Or 1 death for every 6,250 registered cars. Would you rather be in a boat or a car????
If you really want to make a difference, outlaw drinking on boats (oops, tried that about 90 years ago and it didn't work .....). It is a reported factor in more than 20% of boating fatalities, and suspected as a factor in over 70% (lots of people don't want to report to the police that they were drinking when someone drowned, for some reason ....)
Another thing you can do is get a bigger boat. Just think, if we outlawed boats of less than 21' we could prevent 3/4 of the drownings. See the 2007 USCG Safety Report Executive Summary below:
2007 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
NATIONAL RECREATIONAL BOATING SAFETY PROGRAM
? When comparing 2006 and 2007, the number of deaths dropped from 710 to 685. However, other casualty figures increased: accidents rose from 4967 to 5191, injuries rose from 3474 to 3673, and damages rose from $43,670,424 to $53,106,496.
? Over two-thirds of all fatal boating accident victims drowned, and of those, ninety (90) percent were not wearing a life jacket.
? Only fourteen (14) percent of deaths occurred on vessels where the operator had received boating safety instruction.
? Three out of every four boaters who drowned were using vessels less than 21 feet in length.
? Operator inattention, careless/reckless operation, passenger/skier behavior,
excessive speed, and alcohol use rank as the top five primary contributing factors in accidents.
? Alcohol use is the leading contributing factor in fatal boating accidents; it was listed as the leading factor in 21% of the deaths.
? Sixteen (16) children age 12 and under lost their lives while boating in 2007,
compared to 29 children in 2006 and 21 children in 2005. Half (8) of the children who died in 2007 died from drowning.
? The most common types of vessels involved in reported accidents were open motorboats (44%), personal watercraft (24%), and cabin motorboats (15%). The number of deaths associated with the use of canoes/kayaks increased to 107 in 2007 as compared with 99 in 2006.
? The 12,875,568 vessels registered by the States in 2007 represent a one percent increase from last year when 12,746,126 vessels were registered.
The 2007 USCG Safety Report is available at:
http://www.uscgboating.org/statistics/accident_stats.htm
Bubba and Mudskunk have it right. If you feel the need to carry an iron umbrella to avoid the chance of getting hit by a meteor, more power to you. Just don't try to force it on everyone else. Wearing a PFD is one of those "feel-good" things that the government has no business in, and should be left to adult discretion. An adult should be able to decide if they want to go for a swim without a PFD. If something happens to them, I'm going to feel bad, but no worse than for the people who died accidently in any other way while participating in activities of their choosing.
There were about 4,000 drownings in the US last year. About 500 of them were boating-related. Just think, we could have prevented about 3,500 deaths if we required anyone who was going near the water (beach, pools, etc) to wear a PFD!
Common sense and personal responsibility should be the deciding factor on adult PFD usage. If you're in a higher risk situation (skiing, tubing, racing, high waves, etc) you're stupid (in my opinion) not to wear one. I'm sure in some people's opinion I'm stupid for not wearing one when I'm idling down the bayou. People swim off my boat without PFD's, they go off the rope swings that the only way to get to is by boat without PFD's, etc. We're also swimming in calm lakes and rivers with no currents, might be different in other situations.
Since none of my friends drink, I never have to worry about alchohol while out on the boat. I believe that alchohol is a MUCH bigger contributer to the risk of drowning than not wearing PFD's. Doesn't bother me if people want to drink and get stupid, I just stay away from them. Just be aware that they're still responsible for their actions that affect themselves and others.
Boating, per capita, is one of the safest activities out there. No need to try to scare people away from it. You're in more danger of dying in your car on your way to the ramp (5 vs 17 deaths per 100,000 vehicle registrations). Another way to look at it is 1 death for every 19,000 registered boats. Or 1 death for every 6,250 registered cars. Would you rather be in a boat or a car????
If you really want to make a difference, outlaw drinking on boats (oops, tried that about 90 years ago and it didn't work .....). It is a reported factor in more than 20% of boating fatalities, and suspected as a factor in over 70% (lots of people don't want to report to the police that they were drinking when someone drowned, for some reason ....)
Another thing you can do is get a bigger boat. Just think, if we outlawed boats of less than 21' we could prevent 3/4 of the drownings. See the 2007 USCG Safety Report Executive Summary below:
2007 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
NATIONAL RECREATIONAL BOATING SAFETY PROGRAM
? When comparing 2006 and 2007, the number of deaths dropped from 710 to 685. However, other casualty figures increased: accidents rose from 4967 to 5191, injuries rose from 3474 to 3673, and damages rose from $43,670,424 to $53,106,496.
? Over two-thirds of all fatal boating accident victims drowned, and of those, ninety (90) percent were not wearing a life jacket.
? Only fourteen (14) percent of deaths occurred on vessels where the operator had received boating safety instruction.
? Three out of every four boaters who drowned were using vessels less than 21 feet in length.
? Operator inattention, careless/reckless operation, passenger/skier behavior,
excessive speed, and alcohol use rank as the top five primary contributing factors in accidents.
? Alcohol use is the leading contributing factor in fatal boating accidents; it was listed as the leading factor in 21% of the deaths.
? Sixteen (16) children age 12 and under lost their lives while boating in 2007,
compared to 29 children in 2006 and 21 children in 2005. Half (8) of the children who died in 2007 died from drowning.
? The most common types of vessels involved in reported accidents were open motorboats (44%), personal watercraft (24%), and cabin motorboats (15%). The number of deaths associated with the use of canoes/kayaks increased to 107 in 2007 as compared with 99 in 2006.
? The 12,875,568 vessels registered by the States in 2007 represent a one percent increase from last year when 12,746,126 vessels were registered.
The 2007 USCG Safety Report is available at:
http://www.uscgboating.org/statistics/accident_stats.htm
