Victim of May Township drowning identified

Horrible tragedy. Why can't people understand you need to wear a life jacket when you are on the water? All of us in my family can swim, but we still wear life jackets whenever we are kayaking, canoeing, or out on any pleasure boat. It takes 20 seconds and can save your life...

Remember a life jacket won't prevent hypothermia.

Every couple years some people dive into a lake on a HOT spring evening and don't come up, inhale because of the ice cold water and in the dark cannot see the surface.

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Incredible70 wrote:

Horrible tragedy. Why can't people understand you need to wear a life jacket when you are on the water? All of us in my family can swim, but we still wear life jackets whenever we are kayaking, canoeing, or out on any pleasure boat. It takes 20 seconds and can save your life...

Sam wrote:

Remember a life jacket won't prevent hypothermia.
Every couple years some people dive into a lake on a HOT spring evening and don't come up, inhale because of the ice cold water and in the dark cannot see the surface.
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But you WILL come up with a life jacket, so others that may be around can help you. Additionally, the inhalation reflex will make you inhale water, but if you pop to the surface, you will cough it up and have a much greater change of survival. Its amazing how hard it is to drown if you head is above water.

Sad...so sad...life jackets save lives, hence the name, LIFE JACKET. However, this man made a decision to not use one and now his family will have to live without him. I, also, am guilty of not wearing one at all times and I now wonder how I can be so careless with my life. Last summer I was accidently set adrift (on a very windy day, on Long lake in Ely. I did not know how to use the boat motor and the wind made the trolling motor turn me in circles. I was VERY freaked out and the first thing I should have done was put on a life jacket. I didn't. I figured out how to use the motor and made my way back to the island I was camping on. I realized the danger I put myself in by not knowing how to drive the boat, and quickly learned. Not putting on my jacket could have cost me my life. Thank goodness I'm still here and can learn from my mistake. Others aren't so lucky.