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Sail-World.com : To wear or not to wear life jackets
To wear or not to wear life jackets
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Maybe I’m needlessly concerned, but I’m always wary when academics (boffins?) become involved with recreational boating. Be that as it may, some interesting facts have been revealed following a recent study of personal flotation device wearing habits aboard recreational craft.
The study was sponsored by the National Marine Safety Committee, headed by the hard-working and very approachable Maurene Horder. Apparently, the idea behind the study, carried out by Melbourne’s Monash University Accident Research Centre, was to aid in the evaluation of PFD wearing policies and strategies.
“Studies have found that those who survive boating incidents are more than twice as likely to have been wearing a PFD than those who perished,” Ms Horder informs us.
“This study will allow us to develop education strategies to better target boaters and influence then to wear life jackets,” she added.
The study was conducted during the 2006/07 summer boating season and recorded PFD wearing from 26 popular freshwater and saltwater locations in Queensland, NSW, South Australia and Western Australia. Victorian data from 2005 was included as a base line.
“Trained observers” noted information on the site involved, weather, water conditions, type and size of boat, boating activity at the time, number aboard and their PFD wear status. Between 658 and 1097 vessels and upwards of 2800 boaters were observed.
 | Life jackets - should they be compulsory - |
One major finding apparent in each state was that passengers were more likely to wear a PFD if their skipper was wearing one. When the skipper was wearing a PFD, the wear rate amongst passengers varied from 50 to 94 percent. In contrast, when the skipper did not wear a PFD, the wear rate fell away to between 4 and 11 percent.
According to Maurene Horder, there were a number of other highlights revealed;
• The female PFD wear rate was consistently higher than the male rate
• PFD wear was higher among children than adults, particularly those aged under 10-years
• The PFD wear rate on open boats was low to very low, ranging from 3 to 11 percent.
• A similar finding was evident aboard cuddy cabin and half-cabin cruisers.
• Fishing was the most commonly observed boat activity and the PFD wear rate was consistently very low, from 2 to 8 percent (perhaps ‘fishos’ are all good swimmers?).
• General boating and pleasure cruising was the second most observed activity and again the PFD wear rate was extremely low, ranging from 4 to 15 percent.
The National Marine Safety Committee has agreed to a set of risk base guidelines that marine agencies can use if they wish to review or extend their PFD regulations for recreational boaters.
“What we do seek is a consistent approach when developing PFD wearing policies and assessing risks linked to boating,” Ms Horder says.
She said the NMSC had concluded that education was needed to encourage greater PFD wearing.
“All research undertaken has confirmed the value to boaters of wearing PFDs as they do save lives,” she added.
by Bob Wonders
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http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?nid=38397
11:46 AM Wed 17 Oct 2007 GMT
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