The Colorado Parks and Wildlife ranger on the trail around Sylvan Lake was hollering.
“Paddleboarders! Meet me by the dock,” he yelled.
Maray Lindley, 17, and her friend paddled back to the shoreline, where the ranger asked why the two girls didn’t have life jackets on or strapped to their stand-up paddleboard.
“I just completely forgot. We came up through the side and missed the signs,” Lindley said later, after paying the $102.50 ticket. “It was a lot. I was surprised. He was talking about all the drownings.”
Since March 28, at least 32 people have died in Colorado’s reservoirs and rivers. That’s pacing ahead of the record 42 deaths Colorado Parks and Wildlife tracked in 2022. A Colorado Sun accounting of water deaths this year includes 17 deaths in reservoirs and 15 deaths in moving water. One rafter has been missing since his raft overturned June 2 on the Upper Colorado River.
The fatalities this season include:
- A 3-year-old boy who drowned in an irrigation canal near his home in Rocky Ford
- A 65-year-old woman who crashed an e-bike into a swollen Boulder Creek
- A 25-year-old woman who died after she was struck by a motorboat on Navajo Reservoir
- A 20-year-old man found near his submerged car in Horsetooth Reservoir
- Five people who died in boating accidents on reservoirs
- Five people who died in rafting accidents on rivers
- Four people who died after suspected falls into rivers while walking on the shore
- Six people who died in swimming accidents in reservoirs
- Three stand-up paddlers who drowned, two in reservoirs and one in a river
Of the people who died while recreating on a watercraft, six were not wearing a personal floatation device, or PFD, and two slipped from improperly worn PFDs.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife is hammering on its life jacket messaging, emphasizing Colorado laws that require PFDs. People on paddleboards, canoes, kayaks and rafts less than 16 feet long need an accessible PFD for each person aboard. Boats longer than 16 feet need a PFD for everyone plus a throwable flotation device. Anyone on a personal watercraft — like a jet ski — and anyone being pulled behind a boat must be wearing PFDs.
“Many people are just unaware of the law, so education is a great option,” CPW spokesman Joey Livingston said.
CPW has 42 life jacket loaner stations at 24 of its state park reservoirs and recreation areas. That’s an increase from previous years.
On top of the educational campaign, CPW rangers are writing tickets.
Through July 9, CPW has written 430 citations for PFD violations. For the same period in 2023 the agency issued 244 tickets. In all of 2023, CPW officers issued 497 tickets to PFD rule-breakers.
Those tickets are only for visitors to CPW parks, wildlife areas and trust lands. A vast majority of Colorado’s reservoirs and waterways are managed by the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and local cities and counties, all of which can issue their tickets.
The CPW tickets are $102.50 for each violation, which means a boat with five people and zero PFDs could yield five citations totaling $512.50.
“He told us he could have written us two tickets,” Lindley said. “So I guess we got lucky.”