By law, boaters are required to have a life jacket on board for every person, but those life jackets only work if you’re wearing them.
Fourteen people died in boating incidents last year in Wisconsin, only two were wearing life jackets.
“It doesn't do a whole lot of good if it's stowed in a compartment and an emergency happens, the stress factor, the fight or flight mechanism, kicks in. The last thing somebody's going to think about is going into a compartment and trying to dig out a life jacket under everything else that's shoved on top of it,” Lt. Darren Kuhn. He’s the Boating Law Administrator for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
Lack of life jackets on board is one of the most common violations the DNR sees among boaters.
Kuhn says they issue close 500 citations a year for it.
He says the common excuse of them being ugly, hot or uncomfortable doesn’t really hold up anymore.
“Nowadays they come in every color of the rainbow, every shape, every size. There's inflatable life jackets that you don't even know that you're wearing until you inflate them, or until they automatically inflate in the case of an emergency and you're already in the water,” said Kuhn. “Those excuses no longer hold water, if you will, and we just really need people to wear their life jacket.”
Wisconsin boating safety certification or out of state equivalent certification is required for operators born on or after January 1, 1989.
