Here’s an article, from http://www.usps.org/education/files/other_20_handout.pdf , that talks about the reasons for fatalities with people wearing life jackets. “Mouth drowning” - which is what would have had to happen with Fuddy - happens over an extended period of time. Not half an hour (and that’s giving Fuddy ZERO time to drift 200 yards). Sorry for the formatting on this. It must not have transferred to html.
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The Other 20% —
When Wearing a Life Jacket
Is Not Enough
By CDR Kim Pickens, U. S. Coast Guard Reserve
Operation BoatSmart Project Officer
Boating accident statistics show that drowning
is the single biggest cause of death in
recreational boating accidents, accounting for more than 70% of boating deaths. The
great majority of these drownings were precipitated by unexpected
entry into the water,
which means the victim had no time to grab a life jacket before entering the water. Our
data also show that over 80% of drowning victims were NOT wearing life jackets when
found. We know from other data that most of those victims could have been saved had
they been wearing a life jacket before the mishap occurred.
But, you ask, what happened to the other 20%, the ones who were
wearing life jackets,
but drowned anyway? How come they
drowned? Those are good questions, and they
deserve an honest answer. There are actually several
reasons why persons wearing life
jackets occasionally drown.
A significant number of these drowning victims were paddlers, such as canoeists and
kayakers. Now canoeists and, even more so, kayakers
, actually have a pretty good PFD
wear rate, at least compared with most other boating populations.
However, paddlers also have a few things that work against them if they should have a
mishap. Paddlers tend to boat in remote areas, far from rescue resources or help from
passersby. They frequently paddle alone or with only one other person, and the vessels
they use are by design relatively unstable and prone to frequent capsizings. And
paddlers are particularly at risk for a dangerous situation called entrapment.
Entrapment occurs when the vessel or the boater becomes snagged on rocks or debris
at some hazardous point, then goes under due to the severe hydraulics of the water, and
the boater is either unable to escape the craft or unable to escape the hydraulic
pressures on him or her. The boater is unable
to escape the forces on him/her no
matter what kind of PFD the boater has on, and the resulting cause of death would be
drowning.
Other causes of drowning while wearing life jackets generally involve some sort of injury
or impairment that, by itself, doesn’t kill the boater, but is severe enough to prevent him
or her to do those things necessary to keep the boater’s face out of the water or prevent
what we call “mouth immersions” from restricting the victim’s airway over time.
A person who gets hit in the head by some object on land may fall to the ground
unconscious. When that person wakes up, he or she can then seek medical attention
with no other harm done. If that same person gets hit the same way and lands in the
water instead, it’s a very different story.
Wearing a PFD that turns the unconscious victim face up is one way to avoid that
problem, and, unfortunately, most of the more comfortable PFDs – those labeled as
Type III or some Type V PFDs –
will not turn an unconscious victim face up, at least not
consistently. What most such PFDs will
do (all but manually-activated inflatables) is
bring the person, whether unconscious or not, back up to the surface, which enables
those nearby to quickly bring the victim to safety. Unfortunately, it sometimes happens
(not very often) that no one is nearby to help the unconscious victim, and the end result
is drowning.
The Other 20% — When Wearing a Life Jacket Is Not Enough (continued)
I mentioned mouth immersions earlier. Once a boater is in the water, waves
continuously splashing over the victim’s mouth cause a small amount of water to be
ingested, some of which may enter the lungs. The more forcefully and completely the
waves cover the mouth and nose, the more water is ingested. These are called mouth
immersions. There may be injuries or circumstances that make it difficult for a boater,
especially over time
, to prevent mouth immersions even while wearing a PFD.
Eventually those mouth immersions do the same thing as having the boater’s face in the
water: they eventually cause the boater to drown. It is an awful and terribly protracted
way to die, but it does happen.
No
PFD, not even a SOLAS-certified PFD, can prevent all mouth immersions. Mouth
immersions will happen; it is the frequency
with which they occur in a specific PFD
model that is a major factor in determining the classification of the PFD being tested and
whether or not the Coast Guard can approve that PFD for wear.
Those are the primary reasons boaters wearing life jackets sometimes drown. Either the
boater is unable to free him- or herself from some type of entrapment, is unconscious or
otherwise unable to keep his/her face out of the water, or eventually drowns from
numerous mouth immersions over a prolonged period of time.
We know that the greatest cause of death among boaters is drowning due to unexpected
entry into the water. And since you as a boater don’t know when that entry might
happen, the time you need to have your jacket on is before you ever get on the boat!
But we also know that boaters in general HATE wearing life jackets, because they know
how hot and uncomfortable those stupid PFDs are! Is that what you think, too? Ah, but
things have changed in the last ten years! If you haven’t done so already, you really
need to take a look at “today’s” life jackets, because many of the styles available today
are so attractive, so practical, and really and truly comfortable, you may be very
pleasantly surprised! You may have to go to a specialty store or shop online to find one
that even you
could be coaxed into wearing, but they are
available, many at prices that
are very reasonable.
Once you find one that you’ll wear
, it’s also extremely important that you keep it securely
fastened while you have it on. Otherwise, the scenario we frequently see in fatality
reports goes something like this: the victim has a life jacket on but not secured; the
victim falls into the water; the victim’s body goes under the water while the jacket
remains on the surface, and the jacket immediately slips off or separates from the victim,
and the victim drowns. Avoid an untimely separation between your life jacket and YOU:
make sure you’re securely buckled, zippered or otherwise strapped into that thing!
Can we always
prevent people who wear PFDs from drowning? No, and I hope the
explanations given here answer any concerns you may have about their effectiveness.
Wearing a life jacket whenever you are out on the water is by far the single best thing
you can do
to prevent drowning.
Just remember, it’s not the life jacket
that saves lives; it’s you and me wearing
them that
saves lives! Boat smart from the start – WEAR your life jacket!
_____________
Excellent source:
“Eventually those mouth immersions do the same thing as having the boater’s face in the
water: they eventually cause the boater to drown. It is an awful and terribly protracted
way to die, but it does happen.”
And that can’t happen in such a short period of time, part of which Yamamoto was holding her hand.
The difference between a bouyancy vest and a lifejacket/preserver is that a LIFEJACKET/PRESERVER IS MANDATED TO BE SUPPLIED ON AIRCRAFT FLYING OVER WATER.
A bouancyvest is more commonly used by sports people and would be totally unacceptable on an aircraft.
If drowning was the cause of death, there will be evidence of water in her lungs, and someone has to answer how her head ended up under water wearing a life-preserving jacket.
Was the jacket faulty? Incorrectly worn? Not correctly inflated?