LJ 4 Require States Adopt Federal Life Jacket Age Requirements for Vessels Under 26 Feet
Require that states adopt or exceed the minimum federal age requirements for U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jacket wear for vessels under 26 feet in length (currently with any child under 13 years old).
Spectrum level: Influencing Policy and Legislation
Evidence level: High
Rationale:
Although most states follow federal guidelines, some states have adopted lower age cut-offs, and a few states still have no life jacket requirement for any age of children. Adopting this recommendation bring consistency to regulations across states and decrease drownings in this age group, and there is observational data documenting the increased use of life jackets when there are regulations in place. Additionally, water safety experts emphasized the importance of legislation and enforcement in efforts to increase life jacket wear rates.
Anticipated Impact:
After implementing this recommendation, you can expect to experience the following outcomes.
- Increasing wear rates may cause a significant decrease in the number of drownings for children and youth.
Evidence:
There is strong evidence to support mandatory wear in terms of increasing life jacket use and reducing drowning. This evidence includes:
- The adoption of laws and subsequent enforcement have been perceived to be an important facilitator for life jacket wear.
- Stakeholders and focus group participants emphasized that making life jacket use mandatory through legislation and enforcement would be the only way to get more people to use them, even when they did not support the idea of legislation.
- Life jacket use increased only slightly in the first year of the high visibility marketing campaign. Life jacket use dramatically increased in year 1 of mandatory wear and high use was sustained in the following years as boaters became accustomed to life jacket wear.
- An 18.5% increase in wear rate causes a decrease in the number of fatalities by 56.5%.
- Before the "Wear It" campaign, adult wear was 8.5% and rising slightly to 10.5% just over three years after the campaign. Before mandatory regulations at USACE lakes, adult wear was 13.7%, increasing to 75.6% during the first year and remaining high at 68.1% in the third year.
- A Victoria, Australia mandatory personal flotation device wearing regulation showed a significant decrease in drowning deaths among all recreational boaters. Highest life jacket use was strongly associated with laws requiring use and with adult role modelling.
- Observational Learning asserts that people can witness and observe a behavior conducted by others, and then reproduce those actions. This is often exhibited through "modeling" of behaviors. If individuals see successful demonstration of a behavior, they can also complete the behavior successfully.
Evidence Sources:
Cox K.L., Bhaumik S., Gupta M., & Jagnoor J. (2022). Facilitators and barriers of life jacket use for drowning prevention: Qualitative evidence synthesis. Journal of Safety Research, Feb(80), 135-147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2021.11.010
Quistberg D.A., Bennett E., Quan L., & Ebel B.E. (2014). Low life jacket use among adult recreational boaters: A qualitative study of risk perception and behavior factors. Accident Analysis & Prevention, Jan(62), 276-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2013.10.015
Mangione, T., & Chow, W. (2014). Changing life jacket wearing behavior: An evaluation of two approaches. Journal of Public Health Policy, 35(2), 204-218. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43288018
Viauroux C. &, Gungor A. (2016). An empirical analysis of life jacket effectiveness in recreational boating. Risk Analysis, 36(2), 302-19. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12449
Bugeja L., Cassell E., Brodie L.R. & Walter S.J. (2014). Effectiveness of the 2005 compulsory personal flotation device (PFD) wearing regulations in reducing drowning deaths among recreational boaters in Victoria, Australia. Injury Prevention, 20, 387-392. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2014-041169
Chung C., Quan L., Bennett E., Kernic M.A., & Ebel B.E. (2014). Informing policy on open water drowning prevention: An observational survey of life jacket use in Washington State. Injury Prevention, 20(4), 238-243. https://www.doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2013-041005
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. (2010) Mandatory life jacket study/test. U.S. Coast Guard Proceedings. https://cdn.ymaws.com/aca.site-ym.com/resource/resmgr/spp-documents/usacepfdstudy&test.pdf
Mangione T. (ed). (2021). Summary of suggestions for increasing life jacket use. Unpublished survey notes from online survey conducted with persons indicating interest in life jackets via https://www.watersafetyusa.org/nwsap.html.
Canadian Red Cross. (2016). The flotation report: Life jackets/personal flotation devices and boating fatalities in Canada: 20 years of research. https://www.redcross.ca/crc/documents/What-We-Do/Swimming-Water-Safety/2016FlotationReportEMay30.pdf
High Risk Populations Addressed:
The population whose risk of drowning decreases the most with the implementation of this recommendation may have one or more of the following characteristics:
- Children under the age of 13 boating in states with lower or no legal mandates.
- Parents and guardians going into the water to save a child who lived in a state with a lower mandates.
Evaluation Metrics:
Indicators of long-term impact:
- A decrease in drowning rates nationwide
Indicators of intermediate impact:
- Observed wear rates increase in those 13 and under in each state
Implementation:
Consider the following to ensure successful implementation:
- Highlight states currently meeting this standard to help states that are not yet meeting it to comply.
- Remove the ability of states to mandate lower standards to help increase compliance.
- Review the additional life jacket requirement recommendations at the federal and, or, state levels in the USNWSAP.
- Partner with the US Coast Guard to document deaths in youth under 13 years of age due to boating incidents (use national vs state data).
Challenges to Implementation:
When implementing this recommendation, you might encounter challenges related to the following factors.
- States may resist being forced to comply with a federal regulation even if it benefits their own citizens.
Potential Facilitators:
The following factors might facilitate the implementation of this recommendation.
- Many states already comply with this standard, and drowning rates for boating related activities have decreased in states that have adopted this standard.
GAP Recommendation:
None