Eleven Finnish Members of Parliament have put forward an initiative to amend legislation on water transport to make it mandatory for all boats and other water transport vehicles to have a life vest or similar flotation garment for each person on board
Today, the law requires only that motorboats, and for sailboats with a length of five metres or more need to have such a device for each person on board.
Under the rules, the safety equipment should be in the boat, but they do not need to be worn.
The first signatory of the initiative was National Coalition Party MP Sirpa Asko-Seljavaara. The move was the idea of the boating and water protection group in the Finnish Parliament.
The Finnish Boating Association and the Finnish Sailing Federation have also endorsed the idea in a letter to Minister of Transport and Communications Susanna Huovinen (SDP).
Asko-Seljavaara notes that victims of drowning deaths are typically middle-aged men who are usually intoxicated, while in a small rowboat on a pond or a lake.
According to advance figures put out by the Finnish Association for Swimming Instruction and Life Saving, 154 people drowned in Finland from the beginning of this year to the end of October. The number is ten fewer than at the corresponding time last year.
More than a third of the drowning deaths - a total of 54 - involved water transport. A year earlier, the figure was 44.
