Broads safety: holidaymakers shunning lifejackets

Safety campaign follows Norfolk Broads deaths

By Stephen Pullinger Saturday, August 20, 2011
9:53 AM

A new initiative is being launched to encourage more people on boats to wear lifejackets following four deaths on the Norfolk Broads so far this year.

The Broads Authority’s head of safety management, Steve Birtles, is setting up a working party to look at the issue with the Broads Hire Boat Federation (BHBF), holiday booking agents and the Norfolk and Suffolk Boating Association, which represents private boaters.

At the same time, boating holidaymakers are to be surveyed to find out what factors influence their decision whether to use the buoyancy aids supplied.

The moves have been announced in the same week that the EDP went on patrol with Broads Authority rangers on Breydon Water and discovered a shocking disregard for safety among holidaymakers on hire boats.

It revealed an estimated 80pc of hirers shunning lifejackets and widespread ignorance of tides and other fundamental such as how to moor safely.

All four tragedies this year involved people not wearing lifejackets and it is believed that three of the victims might still be alive if they had been wearing one.

The most recent fatality at Acle Bridge last month involved Sheffield holidaymaker Anthony Crampton, 66, who fell in the fast-flowing River Bure while mooring; none of the party on the Summercraft vessel Grecian Girl was wearing a lifejacket apart from the family dog.

Mr Birtles stressed that failing to wear lifejackets was not just a problem among holidaymakers; two of the four fatalities this year involved private boat owners.

He said: “While it is recognised that accidents do happen, the authority is setting up a working group to help identify how safety messages relating to the wearing of lifejackets can be more effectively delivered.

“We also want to understand what the barriers are to wearing a lifejacket so that we may work together with the bodies concerned to address this problem.”

Mr Birtles suggested that wider provision of the slimmer, more comfortable types of lifejacket might be one step forward.

Concerning some holidaymakers’ lack of awareness over other boating fundamentals, he said the authority was carrying out checks at hire boat yards on the thoroughness of instruction offered at the time of hand-over.

“We want to ensure there is a minimum ‘show-out’ standard at every yard,” he said.

Mr Birtles’ safety messages were endorsed by Sue Cadamy, director of Wroxham-based Summercraft which had hired the boat to Mr Crampton, a customer of many years.

She said: “I know his wife Linda would want something positive to come out of the tragedy and raise awareness about lifejackets.

“He just would not wear one even though he had fallen in once during the holiday.”

Lynda Cressey, who runs Loddon-based Maffett Cruisers with her husband John, believes they have found the perfect way to encourage young children to wear lifejackets - offering them ones colourfully decorated with Nemo the fish.

“One child loved it so much he only took it off when he went to bed,” she said.

The couple are also proud they far exceed the standard of instruction required by hire boat licensing; they have even taken half a day to teach customers how to safely drive their cruiser.

The shocking safety failings of many boaters have also been highlighted by experienced sailing instructor Dave Armitage who runs Try Sailing on Barton Broad.

He said: “Last week I rescued a father and daughter whose catamaran had turned over; the girl had no lifejacket and was wearing Wellingtons which would have been like lead boots.”

He said he was also dismayed to see children on the roof of hire boats in stocking feet and playing at the back of boats with no lifejackets on.

A spokesman for the BHBF said they were keen to work with the Broads Authority to find ways of further improving safety awareness.

He said the Broads hire boat licensing scheme conditions already required all on board to be provided with lifejackets or buoyancy aids during the handover process and this had been industry practice for many years.

Hirers were also urged to wear their buoyancy aids, particularly when moving outside the cabins of the boat, going on deck or going ashore to moor up.

“This message is repeated in various publications, leaflets and DVDs which are available to hirers. Unfortunately people sometime disregard this advice,” he said.

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8 comments

Holiday makers on the broads who hire a boat for a week have no idea of the potential dangers they may face, they should be more receptive to advice on how to save themselves and others around them. Whay concerns me is the so called "professional" sailor, whom I watch with regular occurance, leaving a marina to head out to sea with several people on board, including children, heading out to sea. We criticise the occasional sailor but these idiots have very expensive yatchs with all the trimmings and cannot be bothered with the basics. If you are on water then life jackets are essential. However, as I was once told, It is every Englishmans right to drown at sea, you are responsible for your own safety, so I ask myself, why should we bother? Only solution is to make it compulsory, as with seat belts and give the BA powers to fine for none compliance. Should raise a few quid and keep the broads tolls down.

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Mr T

Monday, August 22, 2011
The most common question we are asked at Freedom when we fit the lifejackets is "do we have to wear them?" I get tired of the same old question. Then there's "it's ok, I can swim"; what with a broken arm or when you're unconcious? We can't make people wear them; not even it became law - how many people have you seen on their mobiles today when they've been driving? Awareness campaigns are the only way forward but, ultimately, people are responsonsible for their own safety. We live in an increasingly nannied and liberal state as it is.

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FreedomCruisers

Sunday, August 21, 2011
Certain people cannot be helped. One sentence says it all "He would not wear one, even though he had already fallen in once".

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DaveG

Saturday, August 20, 2011
How about having such safety campaigns before the national holidays start, not just as an afterthought because something has happened. Further, lets have them every year, the more the better.

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ingo wagenknecht

Saturday, August 20, 2011
We had a boating holiday with one of the major companies in the Broads. They supplied only cumbersome and basic life jackets. You could not move around easily in them, they did not fit well and as a result, no-one wore them. We saw only one person in the whole week, wearing one.

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JaneM

Saturday, August 20, 2011
I agree fully with Peter.My question would be who is going to police these regulations if brought in?Certainly not the BA.They are already shedding jobs.Education is the only way forward.A full poster placed in every boat warning of the dangers! or more tuition on mooring up your boat.Nobody shows hirers when on a trial run.

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john kendall

Saturday, August 20, 2011
Might be a good idea if all yard staff, especially those offering training at the start of a holiday, were to be seen to be wearing lifejackets. On one well known Broads Forum advice is often sought regarding lifejackets for dogs, but rarely for humans.

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peter waller

Saturday, August 20, 2011
You often see the holidaymakers dogs wearing life jackets but their children and themselves without them. I think it is probably down to vanity and the great big bulky bright orange monstrosities that the hire firms often provide.

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John L Norton

Saturday, August 20, 2011