Safety board urges life-jacket laws, stability assessments after fatal capsizing
RICHMOND, B.C. — The federal government should look at the success of seatbelt laws when it considers a recommendation that would require commercial fishermen to wear a life-jacket at all times while on deck, the head of the Transportation Safety Board says.
The recommendation to make life-jackets mandatory was part of a report released Wednesday into the deadly capsizing of a 30-metre fishing trawler last year off the west coast of Vancouver Island.
“There was a time when it was OK to drive a car and not wear a seatbelt,” Kathy Fox said following a news conference in suburban Vancouver.
“Regulations came in requiring it and now many people, if not all, would probably say even if there wasn’t a regulation they would still wear it.”