A paddleboarder floats on the Dillon Reservoir below Peak 1 in Summit County on June 2, 2024. The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission received an update this week on its boating safety program.
Andrew Maciejewski/Summit Daily News
As water-related deaths threaten to break records in Colorado this summer, the state parks authority says enforcement is also at an all-time high. Officers are issuing more tickets for life jacket violations than ever before.
Bridget O’Rourke, public information officer with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, said the agency’s law enforcement officers have issued more than 430 citations so far this year related to life jackets, also called personal flotation devices or PFDs.
With much of August still to come, the agency is on track to break last year’s record of 493 life jacket citations. But even with the increased enforcement, recreational water fatalities, most of which involve people not wearing life jackets, are also on the rise this summer at a record pace.
“We enforce our parks. We educate. We police as much as we can,” O’Rourke said. “Then it comes down to the individual responsibility of the person to wear a life jacket.”
While there is no state agency responsible for drowning statistics, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has been keeping an unofficial count of water-related deaths that occur in state parks or are reported to the agency for several years, O’Rourke said.
With 29 water-related deaths so far, this year is on track to be one of the deadliest in state history. That’s more water-related deaths than Colorado Parks and Wildlife counted in all of 2021, when 22 people died, and just under 32 water-related deaths recorded last year, O’Rourke said.
Colorado first saw a surge in water-related deaths in the summer of 2020, when the pandemic drove a record 19 million people to the state’s parks, O’Rourke said. The 34 water-related deaths counted in 2020 set a record that was quickly surpassed in 2022, when 42 people died while recreating on the state’s water bodies, she said.
As water-related deaths skyrocketed this year in advance of the Fourth of July, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials said they were “begging” people to wear life jackets. But as the more than 430 citations for life jacket violations make clear, state officials aren’t just asking nicely — they’re demanding that the public obey the life jacket law.
“It may sound corny, but it’s true that life jackets save lives,” O’Rourke said. “It can be scary being outdoors, especially in unpredictable weather. It’s better to plan to have more safety gear than not.”
In Colorado, life jackets are the law. Children under 13 must wear a life jacket whenever they are on a watercraft, including kayaks and paddleboards. Meanwhile, adults must carry a properly fitting life jacket on their watercraft, according to state law. Violations are punishable by a $100 fine.
This year, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has already issued more citations for life jacket violations than the total number of boating citations, not just life jacket violations, it issued in both 2020 and 2021, O’Rourke said. In total, the agency issued 400 boating citations in 2020 and 391 in 2021, she said.
Last year, Colorado Parks and Wildlife issued a record number of boating tickets, with 924 total, including 497 for violations of the life jacket law. O’Rourke compared a life jacket to a seat belt, saying that while the law only requires adults to carry a life jacket, it’s always better to have one on in case something unexpected happens on the water.
“Education is the biggest part, people stressing that wearing a life jacket can save your life,” O’Rourke said. “What we see is these unfortunate situations that happen. Sometimes you don’t know what’s going to happen when you’re out on the water. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”
Grant Brown, manager of the state’s boating safety program, told the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission last week that most of the water-related deaths this year have involved paddle sports, such as kayaking, rafting and SUP.
Brown noted that the U.S. Coast Guard estimates that life jackets could have saved the lives of more than 80 percent of fatal boating accident victims.
“The biggest thing we see in Colorado is a lack of knowledge about cold water immersion,” Brown said. “I think that’s probably the number one cause of our drownings in Colorado — (other than) obviously not wearing life jackets.”
At high altitudes, especially in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, bodies of water can be freezing cold, Brown said. Diving into that cold water can cause a shock-like reaction, including an involuntary gasp that can cause a person to inhale water, he said. The shock can also cause muscle spasms, making swimming difficult even for people who are normally good swimmers.
Earlier this year, rescuers pulled three people, all suffering from hypothermia, from 110-degree water after a windstorm knocked them off their boat in Dillon Reservoir. The Summit County Sheriff’s Office credited life jackets with saving their lives.
“A lot of times we hear, ‘Oh, they couldn’t swim?’” Brown said. “A lot of times they could swim and they were good swimmers, but they’re not used to swimming in that cold water. It’s not a swimming pool.”
Another common problem is paddleboarders getting separated from their watercraft, Brown said. While a paddleboarder can have a life jacket on their watercraft, as required by state law, he said it doesn’t help them if they get separated from the paddleboard when they end up in the water.
On flat water, paddleboarders should wear a leash so they don’t get separated from the board if they fall into the water, Brown said. He also recommended that anyone recreating on or near the water wear a life jacket, as it offers the most protection.
“You hear more and more about paddleboarders drowning where their life jacket was on their paddleboard, but when they fell off, the person wasn’t wearing a leash, and the paddleboard slipped out of their hands,” Brown said.
James Tutchton, a member of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission, suggested that the state look into possible regulations that would require paddleboarders to wear a leash when on flat water.
Commission member Jack Murphy said: “You have to wear a seat belt when you’re driving. It sounds like you should wear a life jacket when you’re boating.”
Brown said Rhode Island is currently the only state that requires all boaters to wear a life jacket.
Commission member Marie Kaskett noted that some state and local agencies have begun lending free life jackets at popular water recreation destinations to people who don’t bring their own. Kaskett suggested expanding that program.
“I think they should be everywhere,” Haskett said. “That’s a great thing to offer to people who can’t afford life jackets. They’re there for them to use. I think that’s great.”
