By Jim Anderson
Tulsa District

Families come to lakes owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers every day for outings of all kinds. My brother calls such family outings "makin’ memories." Some of my best memories while growing up are of my family spending time at my aunt and uncle’s cabin on Grand Lake.

But not all family outings end so happily. In the past 12 months at Kaw Lake, we have had six water-related fatalities -- five drownings and one boating accident. That is one quarter of the fatalities in all of Tulsa District, which had 24 for the year. I have known periods when we haven’t had six fatalities in six years, and now we’ve had six in one year!

I’ve gotten really good at filling out accident reports and databases. At the end of the accident report is a space where you can write in a lifesaving idea to help eliminate this type of accident. The standard answer is, "Continue to educate the public on…"

You know the rest...this is not rocket science. The five who drowned in at Kaw Lake this year would all be alive today if they had worn life jackets. At least three of the five would be.

You might say, "Jim, you don’t know that for sure." Well, you’re right, I don’t. But I like my chances a lot better with a life jacket on.

We can’t force people do the right, safe thing. We can only continue to try to educate them to do the right, safe thing. Life jackets can keep a fond family memory that you can enjoy forever from turning into a needless tragedy that you can never forget.

(Jim Anderson is a park ranger at Kaw Lake in Tulsa District.)