LOTO Water Safety Council Pushes Lifejackets Amidst Numerous Water Drownings

It hasn’t been a very good month with already seven people dying on statewide waterways including two toddlers at Lake of the Ozarks.

The highway patrol listed five of the deaths as drownings, one from a boat accident and one person who failed to resurface after falling overboard.

The one common denominator…?…none of the seven victims were reportedly wearing a lifejacket.

Captain Bob May with the Water Safety Council says, when shopping for a lifejacket, don’t skimp because it could be the difference between life or death.

“Ensure that the life jacket that you have is truly a Coast Guard approved life jacket because there’s a lot of fake ones to running around out there too. And what that means is if it’s not certified by the Coast Guard, chances are it might not hold you up in the water.”

A national standard requires those 13-and-under to wear a lifejacket when on the water while the law in Missouri applies to those seven-and-under.

Just last week, a two-year-old girl from Gravois Mills and a three-year-old boy from Tuscumbia were not wearing lifejackets when they drowned at the lake.