Widow Pushes Life Jacket Law

A Green Country woman is meeting with lawmakers hoping to make summer on the water safer.  Laurie Watts lost her husband three years ago.

Richard Watts drowned when his boat overturned in a nighttime storm on Keystone Lake.  Laurie says he was not wearing a life jacket.  The law only requires children under 13 to wear one.  But, Laurie wants to change that.

"It's just like a seat belt. If you have your seat belt on in your car and you have an accident you'll more than likely survive.  The same should apply in a boat.  It's like a seat belt, if you have it on, you're more than likely gonna survive," said Laurie Watts.

Laurie says it took nearly a month for the Oklahoma Lake Patrol to find her husband's body.  She says at the very least, the life jacket would spare families from the weeks of waiting she went through.