Factor: No Lifejackets In Drownings

We are drawn into the rivers and lakes to relax, explore, cool off. And every year, lives are lost in trade. Unseen hazards, poor swimmers and bad decisions add to the toll from drowning in the Spokane River, Lake Coeur d’Alene and other popular waters of the Inland Northwest. Just in the past week, water has claimed four lives locally: two in the Spokane River, one in the Little Spokane River in Stevens County, and a 16-year-old boy who died two days after slipping underwater at Spirit Lake in Kootenai County. The Spokane River, an urban waterway for the first half of its flow to Lake Roosevelt, is a temptation of convenience and a deceptive diversion. It has claimed more than 300 lives over the past 75 years, according to news archives/ Scott Maben , SR. More here. (SR photo: Emergency crews have retrieved the body of a man in his early 20s who went missing in the Spokane River Monday night while floating on an inner tube with friends in Spokane Valley)

Question: Do you regularly wear lifejackets on the water?