Alaska leads the nation in drowning deaths. The state's cold water is a factor, but so is human behavior. The Alaska Office of Boating Safety is working to put a dent in those numbers.
Alaska leads the nation in drowning deaths. The state’s cold water is a factor, but so is human behavior.from the Alaska Division of Epidemiology, nearly nine of 10 Alaskans who drowned in non-occupational settings were not wearing a life jacket. And more than one in three drownings were known or suspected to have involved alcohol use.
The Alaska Office of Boating Safety is working to put a dent in those numbers. Education coordinator Annie Grenier says that includes boating safety classes and their Kids Don’t Float program, which provides free-to-use life jackets at places people access water, as well as a new initiative with Alaska breweries called Save It For The Shore.The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Another contributing factor, alcohol has been a contributing factor that we know of in 37% of the boating fatalities over the last 30 years. We know that it hasn’t been a factor in about 30% of those fatalities, and then there’s a big area that we’re pretty unsure of. So that number could actually be quite a bit higher. Alcohol and boating does not pair well together. It affects your balance, it affects your judgment, it makes you more likely to end up in the water.
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