For Release: September 1, 1998

Contact: Steven Hall 222-2284

PROVIDENCE - If your life was saved because you were wearing a life jacket, the Department of Environmental Management wants to hear from you.

DEM's Division of Law Enforcement, in cooperation with the National Safe Boating Council and the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators, is seeking testimonials from people whose lives were saved in boating accidents because they were wearing a life jacket.

"We generally only hear about the fatalities - the accidents where the victims weren't wearing their life jackets, such as the four recreational boating fatalities we've had in Rhode Island this year," said Steven Hall, Chief of DEM's Division of Law Enforcement and the state's Boating Law Administrator.

"We're interested in hearing about the watercraft accidents with happy endings, too," Hall said.

The National Safe Boating Council may use some of the testimonials in their 1999 'Saved by the Jacket' safety campaign to show boaters the value of wearing life jackets. "The best way to convince people to wear their life jacket is by quoting the words of people who wouldn't be around today if they hadn't worn one," said Virgil Chambers, executive director of the National Safe Boating Council.

"The importance of wearing life jackets cannot be overstated," Hall added. "Nationwide, in 1996, more than 700 people - 38 of them children - died in recreational boating accidents. More than half of those boaters could have been saved if they had been wearing life jackets."

"A life jacket is the most effective way to save boaters' lives and we want to encourage people to wear them any time they are in a boat," noted Mike Scanlon of DEM's Division of Law Enforcement, who also serves as the vice chairman of the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators' education committee.

"We've tried to encourage the wearing of life jackets by children," Hall added. "This summer DEM, in conjunction with Newport Creamery, conducted an ice cream coupon giveaway to youths we observed wearing life jackets while in a vessel.

DEM's boating safety educational campaign this summer also included a poster contest for fifth and sixth graders. Winning posters were reproduced and used at marinas throughout the state. DEM Director Andy McLeod said at the time that the campaign was aimed at reaching children at an early age.

"If they develop the habit of wearing life jackets early on, it will stay with them always, just as wearing a bicycle helmet or using a seat belt typically becomes automatic. Life jackets save lives. It's that simple," McLeod said. Eight out of ten boating fatalities, he added, occur on boats where the operator has no boating safety education.

In Rhode Island, children under the age of 11 must wear an approved life jacket while riding in any vessel less than 26 feet long on any waters in the state. "But," Hall said, "it's just common sense for people of all ages on all sizes of boats to wear life jackets."

People are asked to include as many details as possible in their testimonials, such as the conditions under which the accident occurred, where it took place, and, if possible, the type of personal flotation device that was used. The information should be sent to DEM's Division of Law Enforcement, 83 Park St., Providence, RI 02903. The Division will forward the testimonials to the National Safe Boating Council.