Tragedy that's turning the water safety tide
Fishing at Carrum, John Willis and Andrew Pawsey. Mr Willis says fishermen won't wear life vests because they are too bulky and expensive. "Adults wearing them full-time is just ridiculous," they say.
Photo: Angela Wylie
Seventeen years ago the coroner urged life vests be mandatory, write Jo Chandler and Melissa Marino.
IN 1988, Graeme Johnstone then deputy state coroner held an inquiry into the death of a young man who drowned when a squall came across the bay and sent him and his fellow sailors, both experienced yachties, into the water.
There were eight life jackets on the couta boat making its way back to Brighton from Portsea on that day in January 1988. But none of the three men on board were wearing them. "We never did," John Duke, the boat's skipper, told the inquest.
"No one ever seemed to wear them in local bay races or just cruising around."
The policeman questioning him then asked whether he thought that was appropriate.
"Well, not under the circumstances now," Mr Duke responded. "I've obviously changed my attitude."
Even today John Duke says "not a day goes by" when he doesn't think of his lost crewmate. "It never leaves you."
Only luck saved John Duke. The search helicopter he sighted in the early hours didn't see him, but a fisherman did.
At the close of the 1988 inquest, Mr Johnstone found "the fact the deceased was not wearing a life jacket contributed to his death". He also made a recommendation, as the Coroner's Act allows him to do, suggesting that "legislature should consider compulsory wearing of either life jackets or buoyancy vests in all open sailboat situations".
In the years since, 144 people have died while engaged in recreational boating in Victoria, according to the regulatory impact statement released by Marine Safety Victoria. These include people in the ocean and inland waters, on jet skis and in kayaks, sailboats and motorboats.
A more detailed study for the Coroner's Court by researcher Lyndal Bugeja, of the Monash University Accident Research Centre, found that between 1999 and 2002 there were 40 deaths involving recreational boating. Further, she concluded that the absence of life jacket use was the most significant factor contributing to those deaths.
Many coronial recommendations languish because they have no force of law. A few result in significant, life-saving changes like the laws requiring fences around backyard swimming pools.
There is no requirement for an agency such as marine safety authorities to respond to the coroner's suggestion.
But 17 years and several similar coronial recommendations later, Marine Safety Victoria is proposing rules that would make the wearing of life jackets mandatory on all smaller vessels.
On larger vessels, life jackets would have to be worn under particular conditions of heightened danger. A lengthy period of public consultation on the proposed laws closes on October 24.
Yachting Victoria chief executive Ross Kilborn says he believes the proposed regulations have the broad support of the boating and sailing communities he represents largely club-based sailors. Consultation had been detailed and useful, and a few details were still being worked through, Mr Kilborn said. But the proposals were "substantially consistent with standards Yachting Australia has, which we are members of".
Fishermen John Willis, David Kramer and Trevor Hogan reckon they know a thing or two about safety, and they don't think the proposed rules make sense.
"Fishermen just will not wear these things because they're bulky, they're expensive," Mr Willis says. "Adults wearing them full-time is just ridiculous."
The three carry life jackets in their boats, as legally required, but say that in all their years of fishing they have never needed to put one on.
Mr Kramer, executive officer of VRFish, a group representing 20,000 recreational fishers, says the proposal is an impractical way of trying to minimise the impact when something goes wrong. "It's like wearing a crash helmet in a car," he says.
As for John Duke he says that at the least the law should require life jackets to be stored close at hand, not below decks.
As for himself, he says he doesn't sail much any more.