Life jackets can be the determining factor between life and death in many boating safety accidents. Each year, on average, 700 people die in boating-related accidents nationwide – 8 out of every 10 victims were not wearing a life jacket. The national numbers are mirrored in Pennsylvania. In 2006, 25 boaters died; only four of them were wearing a life jacket at the time of the accident. That’s particularly unfortunate because time and time again life jackets have proven to be life savers.

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) estimates that at least 80% of the 132 recreational boating fatalities in the Commonwealth during 1997-2006 would have survived the accident had they been wearing a life jacket.

“People tend to think of boat accidents in terms of collisions – and that is the most common type of reportable boat accident in Pennsylvania,” said Dan Martin, Boating Accident Review Officer for the PFBC. “But the accidents that are killing people are the ones where somebody falls overboard, or swamps a small boat and then ends up drowning. And those are precisely the accidents where a life jacket can make all the difference.”

And it’s not just motorboaters either; eight victims in 2006 were boating on unpowered watercraft like canoes and kayaks.

To emphasize the importance of life jackets, the theme of this year’s National Safe Boating Week is simply: “Wear It.”

National Safe Boating Week is scheduled each year as the first full week before Memorial Day weekend. Memorial Day is often thought of as the unofficial start of warm weather and boating season in Pennsylvania. Boaters should note that it is already the law that children 12 years of age and younger must wear their life jackets when underway on any boat 20 feet or less in length and on all canoes and kayaks.