In a Massachusetts boating weekend characterized by death, injury, and peril, three boaters are alive and safe largely thanks to their life jackets. Following the five boating accidents this weekend, the Coast Guard stressed the importance of always wearing a life jacket when out on the water.

Early Saturday evening, two men were thrown into the water in Boston Harbor after their vessel capsized. The Coast Guard and multiple local agencies arrived on the scene, to find one boater dead and another seriously injured. Neither boater was wearing a life jacket.

Later that evening, the Coast Guard and local agencies searched for two men who were ejected from a moving vessel off Marshfield, Mass. One boater was found, but authorities searched over 600 square miles and found no sign of the other boater. He, too, was not wearing a life jacket.

Three boaters, however, were rescued by good Samaritans this weekend after being thrown into the water. One boater was pulled from the water one mile south of Osterville, Mass. by Osterville Yacht Club members. Another was rescued by the sailing vessel GEMINI 2 after he had fallen off his vessel. A third was pulled from the water by a good Samaritan along the Massachusetts shoreline. All three rescued boaters were wearing life jackets.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Rob Simpson took the opportunity to stress the importance of wearing a life jacket whenever on the water. This weekend was a tragic reminder of how boaters' lives may be affected by not wearing a life jacket.