A paddle boarder floats on Dillon Reservoir below Peak 1 in Summit County on June 2, 2024. The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission received an update on its boating safety program this week.
Andrew Maciejewski/Summit Daily News
Colorado is on the verge of setting new records for water-related deaths this summer, with state parks officials saying they are issuing more life jacket tickets than ever before and enforcement is at an all-time high.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department spokeswoman Bridget O’Rourke said agency enforcement officers have issued more than 430 tickets related to life jackets, also known as personal flotation devices or PFDs, so far this year.
It’s still early August, but authorities are on track to break last year’s record of 493 citations for life jacket violations. But despite increased enforcement, the number of recreational water deaths involving people not wearing life jackets has risen at a record pace this summer.
“We’ve increased policing in our parks, we’ve increased education, we’re monitoring as much as we can,” O’Rourke said. “It’s up to the individual to wear a life jacket.”
No state agency is responsible for compiling drowning statistics, but the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department has for several years been informally counting water-related fatalities that have occurred in state parks or been reported to the department, O’Rourke said.
This year is shaping up to be the deadliest in the state’s history, with 29 water-related deaths so far. That’s more than the 22 water-related deaths counted by the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department in all of 2021 and just shy of the 32 water-related deaths recorded last year, O’Rourke said.
O’Rourke said Colorado’s water-related deaths first increased in the summer of 2020, when the pandemic led to a record 19 million visitors to the state’s parks. He said 34 water-related deaths were recorded in 2020, a new record, but he was quickly surprised by the 2022 number of people who died while recreating in the state’s waters, which rose to 42.
After a spike in water-related deaths ahead of the Fourth of July this year, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials said they were “begging” people to wear life jackets. But as more than 430 citations issued for life jacket violations make clear, state officials aren’t just asking kindly — they’re demanding that people comply with life jacket laws.
“It may sound cliché, but it’s true that life jackets save lives,” O’Rourke said. “Being outdoors can be scary, especially when the weather is unpredictable. More safety gear is better than none.”
Wearing a life jacket is required by law in Colorado. Children under the age of 13 must wear a life jacket at all times while on any watercraft, including kayaks and paddleboards. Meanwhile, state law requires adults to carry a properly sized life jacket on their watercraft, with a $100 fine for violating the rule.
O’Rourke said the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department has already issued more tickets for life jacket violations this year than it has issued for not just life jacket violations, but all boating-related tickets combined in 2020 and 2021. The department issued a total of 400 boating tickets in 2020 and 391 in 2021, she said.
Last year, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department issued a record 924 citations for boating violations, including 497 for not wearing a life jacket. O’Rourke compared life jackets to seat belts, saying that while only adults are required by law to wear life jackets, it’s a good idea to keep them on at all times in case of an unexpected incident on the water.
“Education is paramount and we stress to people that wearing a life jacket can save a life,” O’Rourke said. “What we’re seeing is these unfortunate situations happening. When you’re out on the water, sometimes you don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.”
The majority of water-related fatalities this year have involved paddle sports such as kayaking, rafting and stand-up paddleboarding, state boating safety program manager Grant Brown told the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission last week.
Brown noted that the U.S. Coast Guard estimates that life jackets could have saved more than 80 percent of boating fatalities.
“The biggest problem we see in Colorado is a lack of knowledge about cold water immersion,” Brown said. “I think it’s probably the number one cause of drowning in Colorado, other than not wearing a life jacket, of course.”
Brown said water can get extremely cold, especially at higher elevations in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Diving into that cold water can cause a shock-like reaction, making people gasp and inhale water, Brown said. That shock can also cause muscle spasms that can make swimming difficult for even strong swimmers.
Earlier this year, three rescue workers were blown off their boat into Dillon Reservoir by a windstorm and all suffered hypothermia before being rescued from 43-degree water. The Summit County Sheriff’s Office credited life jackets with saving their lives.
“We hear this all the time: ‘Can’t you swim?'” Brown said. “In many cases they can swim, and they’re good swimmers, but they’re not used to swimming in cold water. It’s not a pool.”
Another common problem, Brown said, is paddleboarders becoming separated from their personal watercraft. Paddleboarders may have life jackets on board, as required by state law, but that’s pointless if they become separated from their paddleboard when they fall into the water, he said.
Brown said paddleboarders on flat water should wear a leash to keep them attached to their board if they are dropped in the water, and he recommended that anyone recreating on or near water wear a life jacket, which offers the most protection.
“We hear so many stories of drownings where someone was on a paddle board and they had a life jacket on the paddle board, but they didn’t have a lead on when they fell off and the paddle board got away,” Brown said.
James Touchton, a commissioner with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission, suggested the state consider regulations requiring paddleboarders to wear leashes at all times when on flat water.
“When you drive a car you have to wear a seat belt. It seems like when you go on a boat you have to wear a life jacket,” said committee member Jack Murphy.
Brown said Rhode Island is currently the only state that requires all boaters to wear life jackets.
Committee member Marie Caskett noted that some state and local governments have begun setting up free life jacket loaner stations at popular water recreation spots for people who don’t bring their own, and suggested continuing to expand those programs.
“I think life jackets should be everywhere,” Haskett said. “It’s great that we can provide them to people who can’t buy them. Because we have life jackets, people can use them. I think that’s great.”
