When Utah started requiring that training in 1995, it had 133 accidents with personal watercraft that year. By 2005, that number had decreased to just 29. Meanwhile, the number or personal watercraft in the state has increased from 7,000 to 15,000. Harris figures 30,000 Utahns (youths with required adults in attendance) took the course in that time, leading to the improvement.

Life-saving vests

Officials in Utah say deaths from boating accidents could be vastly reduced if everyone wore life vests.

It is required by law only for children age 12 and under — and for waterskiers or others towed by boats or people on rivers. Otherwise, laws require only that boats carry enough life-saving jackets for all passengers, but it does not mandate that they wear them.

"The trouble is they may not be able to get to them or put them on in cold or rough water or in an emergency," Harris said.

He said the state encourages all boaters to always wear them when under way. Mayer said rangers at Lake Powell try to set an example by always wearing their life jackets on the water.

But Droesbeke has an example of how few other adults wear them.

"We go into elementary schools for safety presentations. When I ask kids how many of their parents make them wear life jackets when they go boating, almost every hand goes up. When I ask them how many of their parents wear them, too, almost every hand goes down," he said.

As stated, of 44 boat-accident drownings reported in Utah in the surveyed decade, 35 victims did not wear flotation devices. Even among the nine who did, only one wore a life vest designed to keep an unconscious person face up in an accident (Type I), while all others wore only lighter-duty life vests.

Droesbeke said many people don't like the vests, thinking they are uncomfortable or bulky. But he said modern inflatable designs are much more comfortable and in many cases even more effective than traditional devices.

Harris said, "They are so comfortable that sometimes I have gotten in my car and driven much of the way home before I realize that I forgot to take off my life jacket."

Harris said it might be wise to consider legislation to require all passengers to wear life jackets in at least certain types of boats that more easily capsize and create the highest threat of drowning, such as paddlecraft and small fishing motorboats. "We could get most the benefit by requiring wearing them on just a few types of boats."

Coast Guard Rear Adm. Brian Salerno, director of inspection and compliance, issued a statement last year that said the agency is considering whether to require flotation devices for those boaters most likely at risk.

He warned such regulations could still be far away.