Introduction

The National Safe Boating Council asked the public to tell us about how their lives had been saved. Life saving societies, police, Coast Guard, state fish and game authorities, magazines, newspapers and radio stations across the nation helped us ask boaters to tell their stories.

We were overwhelmed by the response. The National Safe Boating Council received testimony from boaters living in 30 different states. Canoers, kayakers, anglers, personal watercraft operators, powerboaters, houseboaters, sailors and yachters, from all walks of life told us how they escaped death because they were wearing a personal flotation device. We even heard from someone sleeping in a Florida trailer park.

Over the course of this past year over a hundred stories were collected, authenticated and where possible publication permission was sought and received.

Whether boating in salt or fresh water, on a river or stream, the one common thread through all of our tales is the storyteller’s new found respect for the value of wearing a life jacket.

It is a well-known fact that in almost three-fourths of all fatal boating accidents, the cause of death is drowning. And, in 88% of those drownings the person wasn’t wearing a life jacket. This book isn’t about those statistics. It is about the facts that can’t as easily be quantified – the number of people who didn’t become a statistic thanks to wearing their life jacket.

This is a good news book; a collection of stories where real people walk away from life threatening, on-water situations because they did something right.

“Saved By the Jacket” is a call to action. It is also a time to thank the boating community, from the firemen who loan out free life jackets to the marina owners and camp operators who insist that all their customers wear life jackets. Thanks for practicing what we preach. Life jackets save lives. The proof is a real page turner.