In the same way a driver on the road should be prepared for fellow motorists to do the dumbest things they can think of, boat operators should expect the same from their fellow boaters, with an added measure of harsh Mother Nature mixed in. Responsibility and safety, though, begin at home.
“The biggest mistake I usually see is people not having enough life jackets, or not having any life jackets at all with them,” said Ty Cox, of Iuka, a lifelong angler. “Another big thing is, if your boat has a kill switch, which just about all of them do now, make sure you hook that kill switch up to your body as you’re running down the lake because, if you get thrown out and that kill switch isn’t hooked up, that boat is going to keep on running.
“If you’ve got that kill switch hooked up and you get thrown out or anything like that, thrown away from the driver’s seat say, the kill switch will shut the motor off.
“For instance, we were up at Kentucky Lake a couple years ago and there were two boys thrown out of a boat and didn’t have their kill switch hooked up, and their boat sat there and did circles around them. Luckily someone came and got them before the boat hit them.”
Caution and forethought go a long way toward ensuring safety.
“Another big thing is, have a throw cushion,” Cox said. “You can get them at Dollar General for a couple bucks. That way, if someone fell out of the boat and didn’t have a life jacket on, you could throw that to them to hold onto until you could get them back in the boat.
Stay alert
“Something I see pretty often is a need for everyone to be aware of their surroundings. If you’re going down the lake and you want to turn across, look back before you do and make sure no one’s coming up behind you. I see stuff like that happen all the time. Before you turn, make sure you’re not going to cut across in front of anyone.”
Along with safety, common courtesy in shared areas is often another point of contention.
“Always have your boat ready to put in the water before you actually get on the ramp,” Cox said. “Don’t pull up on the ramp and then unstrap the boat, put the plug in, transfer gear and whatever else. Just pull up in the parking lot and do that, then, when you go to the ramp, you can get in and get out quicker without holding up the line and causing problems.”
Conservation officers patrolling Mississippi’s inland public waters encounter a wide variety of scenarios, but those most often responsible for causing boaters regret are also the easiest to avoid.
“The first thing any boat needs is a sober driver,” Conservation Officer Greg Walters said. Those operating a boat on Mississippi’s waters are held to the same standards of sobriety as those operating a vehicle on the state’s roads. “Next, they need to have their boat registration with them, one life jacket per person, a throwable flotation device if their boat is over 16 feet long, a fire extinguisher and an emergency sound device.”
Law and jackets
By state law, any passenger 12 years of age or under must be wearing his or her life jacket when the boat is traveling underway. By definition, the safety devices most effective at saving lives are those people will actually use. Suspender-style, automatically-inflating life vests that are not bulky and don’t restrict movement achieve that goal.
Recreational time on the water is meant to be relaxing and fun. Bulky life jackets that are cast aside to avoid discomfort aren’t likely to save anyone in a true emergency, but forcing people to wear them has not proven to be practical either. Makers of Coast Guard-approved vests in the inflatable suspender-strap style offer a product that’s light, comfortable and easy to wear. Worn over the top of clothing, it’s easy for a wearer to forget they even have this life vest on.
Coast Guard statistics show more than 75 percent of all boating fatalities happen when people fall overboard and drown. In 2020, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 767 people died and 3,191 were injured in boating accidents in United States waters. Of those who drowned, 84 percent were not wearing a life jacket.
Inflatable vests are light and lie flat. When the wearer goes into water, automatic inflation is triggered by a device that detects either water or water pressure. They can also be inflated intentionally with the pull of a handle. The vests use bladders that are filled from a replaceable CO2 cylinder and can be rearmed and used again. The vests typically sell for $50 to $100. Rearming kits generally run $25 to $30.
The vests are designed for emergency use but typically exhibit top-quality construction. Those under the Mustang and Onyx brands are both well-made and affordable.
Along with wearing a life jacket, most other water safety precautions fall comfortably into the category of common sense. In no case, however, is common sense fool-proof protection from what other boaters on the water with you may do. Pretty often, as accident statistics show, the worst mistakes are made by people who had more than enough life experience to know better, and nowhere is this more apparent than on the water. With experience comes complacency and, often, accidents are quick to follow.
One solution for this is mandatory boater education. In Mississippi, anyone born after June 30, 1980 must complete a boating safety course to operate a boat. The state course, which involves six hours of classroom study, is taught by teachers approved by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. Much like a hunter education certificate or a drivers license, it is accepted by other states nationwide. Learn more about this as well as online course options at mdwfp.com/education-outreach.
Check your wake
Outside of the obvious, the most overlooked aspects of boating safety are which boat has the right of way, and being responsible for your boat wake.
A perfect example is found at Rose’s Bluff at Mississippi’s Ross Barnett Reservoir, a popular anchoring area for boats each summer. Families park pontoons and pleasure craft in close proximity, to swim and enjoy the group atmosphere. Knowing that, and seeing that, it’s routine to see boats race back in the corner or swing up close to the anchored boats and make an abrupt turn. The wake causes parked boats to swing on anchor, creating pointless risk for those in the water.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 26 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
