Local

DNR: Life Jacket Likely Would Have Prevented Recent Lanier Death

June 5th, 2013

Since January, three people have died on Lake Lanier. All of them were not wearing life jackets, including a woman who lost her life last weekend.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources says 55-year-old Becky Wallace drowned in Lake Lanier Saturday after a tube she was riding in with three children turned over. During the accident, the tube was being pulled by a pontoon boat. Wallace wasn’t wearing a life jacket and went under while trying to save the children. The children were wearing life vests and lived. DNR Captain Thomas Bernard says the drowning should serve as a wakeup call.

“A lot of folks think this can’t happen to them, but it can happen to anyone regardless of how good of a swimmer they are.”

Bernard says if Wallace had been wearing a life jacket it’s likely she would have lived, and he says she was breaking the law.

“State law requires anyone that is skiing or swimming in a tube to use a personal floatation device.”

The fatal incident comes after two other boating deaths that occurred on the lake earlier this year. Both men also weren’t wearing life jackets, but Wallace says they’re not required for adults riding in boats. However, he says the department recommends that boaters, especially those in the water alone, wear floatation devices. State law requires children under 13 to have life vests on while boats are in motion.