a day ago
RNLI advise South West water users to check their lifejackets
The RNLI is encouraging people to check their lifejackets are working correctly before heading out to life-saving charity said they checked 803 lifejackets in the South West last year and found 523 of them had faults. It comes after three experienced sailors were recently rescued when their boat capsized within sight of the lifeboat station at Salcombe, safety officer for Salcombe, Simon Linsley, said they were all wearing lifejackets, but only one worked correctly.
"If they had been 300m (985ft) further down the estuary, they would have been in serious trouble- the outcome could have been very different," he Linsley said two of the lifejackets had serious faults and one of them had no gas in the cylinder, meaning it had already been fired."The guy who took it wouldn't have known any different, the other one didn't deploy properly and the only one that did inflate but we were a bit concerned about the state of that one when he came to shore."
The RNLI advised people should check their own lifejackets every six months and every time before use. People who are unsure of how to maintain their lifejackets effectively can seek advice at their local lifeboat stations, it added.
