Originally Posted by
350htrr
PFDs are probably the same as helmets, if you wear them they can/do help but probably not as much as most people may think... Your survival in the water is effected by many other things, like is it a calm lake or a stormy sea, how good a swimmer you are, sharks, water temps, currents, waves...
That's why I asked for stats -- to get away from probably and most people. : ) But I don't wanna do the googling either. My hunch is that they've sizably reduced problems. Like safetybelts. In contrast to bike helmets.