Grab your life jackets, because May 21-27 is National Safe Boating Week. This week-long awareness campaign is just the beginning, too: It kicks off a yearlong North American Safe Boating Campaign — also called “Wear It!” — that spotlights the importance of wearing a life jacket. According to U.S. Coast Guard statistics, drowning was the reported cause of death in three-fourths of recreational boating fatalities in 2014 — 84 percent of which were not wearing life jackets. The Wear It! campaign also reminds boaters to never boat under the influence and to know navigational rules.
To start National Safe Boating Week, the National Safe Boating Council and the Canadian Safe Boating Council are sponsoring “Ready, Set, Wear it! Life Jacket World Record Day” on May 21. Participants are invited to wear their inflatable or inherently buoyant life jackets at select locations in an attempt to defeat the 2015 world record of 10,917 life jacket-wearers in 257 locations around the world. Organizers hope the event will promote routine life jacket inspection.
To learn more about this and future events, visit Safeboatingcampaign.com.
