It’s Boating Safety Week!
Posted May 17, 2014 8:46 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – With the long weekend here, many people are hitting the water.
It’s Boating Safety Week, and MADD Canada says there are 15 per cent more alcohol-related deaths on the water.
MADD CEO Andrew Murie says it’s about a frame of mind. “People don’t apply the same logic to drinking and driving that they apply to the road as they do to their boat. Consequently, we have way more percentage of alcohol-related deaths on the waterways, so we need to make sure that no matter motorized vehicle we’re operating, it should be alcohol-free.”
Getting people to wear their seat belt in a car, there’s about a 95 per cent rate wear. Same logic, you ask a person to wear a life jacket, they just don’t seem to want to do it. A lot of these deaths that occur on the waterways, if they had been wearing a life jacket they would have survived,” he adds.
Murie adds, much like if you see an impaired driver on the road, if you see an impaired boater, you should contact the police immediately.
