CLEVELAND – A rescue boat crew from Coast Guard Station Ashtabula, Ohio, rescued three people found clinging to debris, after their 21-foot recreational boat capsized about seven miles northwest of Ashtabula, in Lake Erie, Friday afternoon.
The people were not wearing life jackets. Their names and hometowns are not being released.
Radio watchstanders at Coast Guard Station Ashtabula received a call at 12:30 p.m. from a good Samaritan, who reported finding 3 people in the water clinging to debris. Station Ashtabula launched a boatcrew, aboard a 33-foot Special Purpose Craft-Law Enforcement, and found the three people showing signs of exhaustion; one was in an unresponsive state.
The people were brought aboard the SPC-LE and transported to waiting emergency medical services at the public dock in Ashtabula.
The people were transported by ambulance to Ashtabula County Medical Center. All three people are reported to be in stable condition.
The Coast Guard recommends that mariners wear a properly fitting Coast Guard-approved life jacket at all times while underway. According to the Coast Guard’s Recreational Boating Statistics 2011 report, the most current verified statistics available, of the 533 people across the nation who drowned in recreational boating accidents in 2011, 84 percent were not wearing a life jacket.
A life jacket can’t save your life if you’re not wearing it.
Click here to learn more about life jackets at the Coast Guard Boating Safety Resource Center.
