Your PFD And You: Perfect Together

Submitted by tomrue on

Under a headline of Wear Your Life Jacket: River Drownings Underscore Need For Simple Precaution, the front page of yesterday's Times Herald-Record pictures Commodore Richard Rhodes of the National Canoe Safety Patrol advocating the use of personal flotation devices (also known as life preservers) as he patrols the rapids at Skinners Falls on the Upper Delaware Scenic & Recreational River.

Twenty-one years ago (!), I wrote a "Profile" of Commodore Rhodes, a family friend at the time with his wife Mary, for The River Reporter. It's good to see he's still out there taking care of business. It's also good to see the NCSP getting some public credit.

Yet today's paper reported, Delaware claims life of fourth man this year: "The powerful current of the Delaware River claimed another life on Friday when a 20-year-old Staten Island man drowned near the Hamlet of Minisink Ford, state police said. Salvatore Valenziano Jr. and four of his friends tried to swim across the Delaware River from the New York shore to Pennsylvania. Four of the swimmers arrived safely on the other side, but the strong current dragged Valenziano under water."

Police said Mr. Valenziano was not wearing a PFD. The Record notes that 11 of the 12 people who have died in the Delaware since June 2003 have entered the river without a life jacket, and more people have died in the river this year than in any of the past five years.

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