Life Jackets

With boating deaths at a seven-year high, the Department of Natural Resources will be asking the General Assembly to enact tougher laws, requiring more children to wear life jackets and placing age restrictions on who may supervise an uncertified boater. Fifteen people have died on Maryland waterways this year despite stepped-up enforcement and high-visibility safety campaigns by Natural Resources Police. Under a proposal endorsed by the O'Malley administration, all children under the age of 13 would be required to wear a personal flotation device, beginning July 10. The current age threshold is 7. Maryland, which pioneered mandatory boating safety classes in the 1980s and minimum ages for wearing a life jacket, fell behind other states in enacting tougher standards.

Maryland's spring hunting season for bearded turkey opened last week, with hunting allowed in all counties, and forest game manager Steve Bittner confident that the monthlong season will set a record."

The young man cruising across Spa Creek in the 22-foot speed boat yesterday afternoon just didn't know about the 6-knot limit that takes effect on weekends and holidays."

In the minutes before the El Toro II sank in a storm on the Chesapeake Bay, 20 passengers got little instruction or help from the crew as they scrambled for life jackets, launched a life raft and leaped into 8-foot seas, two survivors testified yesterday.Teresa Shipe, 37, of Mechanicsville, whose husband was one of three people killed in the Dec. 5 accident, described panic on board as the engine quit and water flooded the deck. She testified in a Coast Guard inquiry in Baltimore that she told her husband "he's got to take control" because no one seemed to be in command as the wooden vessel foundered in gale winds and heavy seas about five miles south of Point Lookout.

For many people, Memorial Day marks the first big boating weekend of the season, and most boaters will pass the days without incident. But one national organization estimates that as many as 50 people could die in boating accidents across the country between Saturday and Monday.BOAT/U.S., the country's largest retail, services and safety organization of recreational boaters, says statistics show that death or accident while on the water can be avoided with a few simple precautions and sensible planning.

With or without Mother Nature's astounding and terrifying pyrotechnics last Sunday, the fourth annual Northern Bay Race Week was a brilliant victory for Shady Side sailor Paul Parks and his team on his J/35Sundog.The three-day contest was staged off the mouth of Middle River for a fleet of nearly 80 boats sailing in five classes.Sailing with Parks and his wife, Cathy, to a perfect all-ace record through a wide range of conditions were Tim Mangus, Tee Thieler, Rob Simkins, Scott Haerbig, Bob Cornelius, Mark Goode and George Barnes.

James G. McAllister gave his pregnant wife and two young daughters an extra hug yesterday morning. Two days after being plucked from the 55-degree waters of the Chesapeake Bay, the 38-year-old Hickory Ridge man doesn't want to let go of them."

While reptiles, fish and canoe-dunking rank as favorites among Nature Camp-ers at Piney Run Park, running out of gas on the lake will provide fodder for many campfire tales to come."

L. Alan Keene's op-ed ("Save boaters from themselves: require life jackets," May 15) argues incorrectly that boaters must be "saved from themselves" through the enactment of mandatory life jacket laws when in fact the opposite is true — we must arm boaters with the knowledge to make the right decisions on their own. Boating remains a fun and safe family activity for people of all ages. Boaters, especially those in the Chesapeake Bay area who have long legacies of enjoying local waters, take safety very seriously.

I just read the article "Save boaters from themselves" (May 18) and I have to disagree with author about making it a law to wear PFDs (life jackets). That is what is wrong with this country today, there are too many laws telling people what to do. People need to start thinking for themselves and become responsible for their own actions, and the government needs to stay out of peoples' lives. The people are bigger than the government since we created the government. We do not need laws to protect us from ourselves.