CLEVELAND — A rescue boatcrew from Coast Guard Station Saginaw River, in Essexville, Mich., rescued three people from a vessel taking on water in Saginaw Bay, Saturday evening.
Rescued were two adults and one child, all wearing life jackets.
Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Detroit received notification at about 7:15 p.m. of a 17-foot recreational vessel taking on water near the west side of Channel Island. The boatcrew from Station Saginaw River launched aboard a 24-foot Special Purpose Craft-Shallow Water and brought all three people aboard.
The vessel was towed to a local Michigan Department of Natural Resources boat ramp.
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.
