NEW ORLEANS — The Coast Guard kicked off the start of National Safe Boating Week with Wear Your Life Jacket to Work Day at many of its units along the Gulf Coast and throughout the heartland Friday.
National Safe Boating Week takes place May 21-27. The week aims at improving boater behavior through education, awareness and training to make recreational boating a safe and enjoyable experience by reducing boating accidents across the country.
This year, in conjunction with the "Wear It!" campaign, the Coast Guard will highlight a safe boating initiative during each day of National Safe Boating Week to increase recreational boating safety, which are:
- Life jackets
- Signaling device
- Marine-band radio
- File a float plan
- Vessel Safety Check
- Boating Safety Course
- Boating Under the Influence
Throughout NSBW, the Coast Guard Auxiliary, Power Squadrons and state natural resources agencies will offer safe boating classes and free vessel safety checks. To find the location of the nearest Auxiliary flotilla and a schedule of safe-boating classes, please visit their website at www.cgaux.org.
From 2014 to 2015, deaths in boating-related accidents across the country increased 2.6 percent, from 610 to 626, and injuries decreased from 2,678 to 2,613, a 2.4 percent reduction. The total reported recreational boating accidents increased from 4,064 to 4,158, a 2.9 percent increase. The fatality rate for 2015 of 5.3 deaths per 100,000 registered recreational vessels reflected a 1.9 percent increase from the previous year's rate of 5.2 deaths per 100,000 registered recreational vessels. Property damage totaled approximately $42 million. Where the cause of death was known, 76 percent of fatal boating accident victims drowned, and of those drowning victims, 85 percent were reported as not wearing a life jacket.
"Many of us are just too hesitant to wear a life jacket for a variety of reasons," said Ed Huntsman, recreational boating safety specialist for the 8th Coast Guard District. "Put the people who love you first. Find a life jacket you like, and wear it for them.”
For more on National Safe Boating Week, please visit http://www.safeboatingcampaign.com.