Life Rings To Be Placed Along Lake Michigan.
(Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project)
In an attempt to reduce the toll of drownings along Lake Michigan, the Indiana state legislature has signed a bill into law that requires life rings to be placed along the shore of Lake Michigan. The bill requires local governments and property owners to place life rings in weather proof cases with at least 100 ft of rope along public access points such as beaches and piers. The life ring case would be attached to a fixed point but the ring itself will not be attached to anything, to allow for access to deeper water. The law aims to have a ring for every quarter mile along Indiana’s 26 mile coast line. The bill comes after 39 people drowned in Lake Michigan, making 2023 the most deadly year on Lake Michigan on record.
“You’re inviting individuals here. You have a national park, you’re spending hundreds of millions of, hundreds of millions of dollars to get, you know, dollars to, to get that tourist to northwest Indiana,” Rep. Rodney Pol, D-Chesterton recently told WDNU. “And to get them out onto the beach, but then you’re not doing anything to actually protect them for how dangerous the water is.”
The new law also requires that if more than one fatal drowning occurs within 50 ft of one public access within five years that the manager of that site would have to either upgrade the life saving equipment or create a water safety plan.