The Oregon Legislature missed the boat this session on important water safety legislation.
Pun not only intended, but emphasized.
…And both sides of the aisle also missed yet another opportunity to lead the nation in a significant safety issue.
Michael Shufeldt, a Washington fishing guide, drowned in the Columbia River last September when the wind unexpectedly gusted (as it often does) in the gorge, reaching the Hood River area before anyone could react to the sight of whitecaps coming at them from downriver.
It’s a windsurfer’s dream.
…And an angler’s nightmare – especially if his PFD’s are stowed or anywhere other than wrapped around his or her neck.
Shufeldt and all six clients were racing to get them on when the boat dug into a wave and kept going.
The clients managed to find their way to the rescuers.
Shufeldt’s PFD or clothing apparently was tangled in one of the outboards or other devices in a fishing guide’s cockpit, and he was pulled under.
I heard some crass jokes these past couple of weeks about the hapless kayaker swept over Willamette Falls while visiting from California. He wasn’t wearing one and apparently wasn’t aware of his danger while cruising the Willamette after dark, and reportedly from the shore a little upstream.
Sure, it’s the same fatal combination – no PFD and no idea that something could happen so quickly.
But the old saw about making people wear one “so they can find the body” just isn’t funny anymore, guys.
Charter skippers have also died that way, even from the relative safety of wheelhouses in large ocean-going boats.
Remember the Taki-Tooo disaster in 1993?
That skipper was among the fatalities, and it’s entirely possible that if he’d been wearing a PFD at the helm, a lot more might have been known about the causes.
But back to Shufeldt in September.
There was plenty of time for legislators to draft a first-in-the-nation requirement that all guides with paying clients be required to wear a PFD at all times – especially those with aluminum sleds.
I didn’t see anything close to that kind of law in a cursory glance at coastal states.
Guides not only owe it to those often-strangers to be prepared for anything, but would have become on-the-water role models for other private boaters.
PFDs of today are completely comfortable and unobtrusive, unlike bulky life jackets.
My guide son, Bill Monroe Jr. (who quite often doesn’t wear his PFD, but requires them on all bar crossings) suggests if we’re taking it that far, why not require all operators of boats to wear PFDs at all times while underway.
After all, if guides owe their clients, don’t the rest of us owe it to our friends and families?
Perhaps, but that might be far too big a chunk for a politician to swallow in one agenda meal…without at least a session or more to review the outcome of a guide-only rule.
Shufeldt’s death struck home to me, and I now wear one all the time on a boat.
(BTW, I recall a quip years ago from Paul Donheffner, former Marine Board director, who said the majority of drowning deaths among males not wearing PFDs were those taking a leak over the side of the boat. “You can’t legislate stupid,” he added.)
Oregon’s Marine Board hasn’t had much support for more than a requirement to require them of all boaters heading through rapids of Class III and higher, which, yes, is kind of a no-brainer.
The best this year’s lawmakers could cough up was a shift on the age requirement from 12 to 16, but it died in a committee cutting room.
Even the U.S. Coast Guard hasn’t shown much interest in going beyond the age rule for children.
Consider that decades after the thought occurred to those watching grisly traffic deaths and dismemberment, seat belt laws were finally adopted in all (or at least most) states – even/especially for bus and shuttle drivers.
Now, we’re seeing the narrative shift further, beyond helmets for motorcycles to bicycles, skiing, and snowboarding.
Bottom line?
C’mon Reps and Sens and Guv – If life jackets/PFDs only save lives when they’re worn…
MAKE US WEAR THEM!