You would think that life vests were mandatory on all water craft. Also, it states ‘stormy Missouri lake’ and you have to wonder if the boat owners checked for bad weather risks.
Perhaps we are all just getting ‘careless’ - believing that government regulations, cops, coastguard etc., are always close by to save lives and rescue us.
In this particular case a life vest only helps if you get out before it goes down. They were trapped under canopy. Limited exits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fu6iMf6FtI
Above is a video of Mike Row (Dirty Jobs) talking about “Safety Third”. Skip to 2:50 on the video, that yes, with all of the regulations, OSHA, etc. that one doesn’t take care of themselves as they believe that everybody else is watching out for them.