With 18, Wisconsin Ties Boating Fatalities from 2010

Wisconsin has already matched the 18 watercraft-related deaths reported last year and the summer isn’t even over.

Jeremy Cords, a safety expert with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, tells the Green Bay Press-Gazette that too few life jackets and too many speeding boats are to blame.

He says that if you took speed out of most accidents, people would have time to react and avoid collisions. He estimates that boating deaths would drop 75 percent if everyone wore life jackets.

Alcohol use is another key factor in fatal boating incidents. Investigators have found alcohol was involved in a third of this year’s deaths. Nine of the deaths are still under investigation.