Life Jacket Regulation Report

[JackM]

I couldn't find Tim's prior post, but I saw this in the On-line edition of the Post-Gazette this morning:

Fishing Notebook: Life jackets move finds rough water
Sunday, November 12, 2006

By Deborah Weisberg


Despite a year in which boating fatalities on Pennsylvania waters are, so far, double the 10-year average, a move to make life jackets mandatory for kayakers, canoeists and others in boats less than 16 feet long has hit rough waters.

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission has received 376 comments opposing year-round mandatory wearing of life jackets and just 14 supporting it. According to commission data, boating fatalities usually involve un-powered watercraft and boaters who aren't wearing life jackets.

Statewide, 24 people have died in boating-related accidents this year. The public comment period ends Wednesday. For more, visit www.fish.state.pa.us.

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear Jack,

That's great news! Now I won't have to sell my boat and get a bigger one!

I wear my life jacket when I fish from my float tube. It's a pain in the butt, but it's the law so I comply. I don't think it should be the law when fishing or boating in a hard shelled boat though. People have to make their own decisions at times, the State doesn't need to be making them for all of us.

If you are in high, rough, cold water in a small boat, kayak, or canoe and don't wear a life jacket well then that's your problem, there is no reason why it needs to be my problem as well.

Can you tell I'm a Libertarian at heart?

Regards,
Tim Murphy