Provincial Police are reminding you that a number of people who know how to swim drown in boating accidents every year.
This week is Boating Safety Awareness Week and Sergeant Dave Moffatt says they are encouraging everyone to wear a life jacket or personal flotation device when out on the water.
Moffatt adds they hear a lot of excuses for not wearing a life jacket in a boat.
“I’ve gotten numerous excuses, going all the way from tan lines, to ‘It’s okay, they’re already in the boat,’ to ‘I don’t see the police in this lake, so I don’t wear them,” Moffatt explains.
Moffatt says because more people seem to be boating because of COVID-19, there are a lot of people on the water who don’t necessary know how to be safe.
“The biggest excuse is about swimming,” he explains. “They say, ‘It’s okay, I’m a good swimmer, I don’t really need one.’ We learned that over fifty per cent of the [drowning] fatalities that we had last year had some sort of ability to swim.”
Boating Safety Awareness Week runs from May 22nd to 28th this year.
