As deer hunters across the U.S. go into the woods seeking big game this season, statistics show thousands will not use their safety harnesses and straps – or will improperly use them – and risk injury or death from falls from tree stands.

It is estimated that half of all hunters who use tree stands do not wear proper safety gear to avoid a fall.

Jacketport™, a new safety device invented by a lifelong Georgia hunter, focuses on making it easier, more convenient and comfortable to wear a safety harness under the outer hunting jacket and effectively secure it to the tree with the outer strap.

“All of us hunters using deer stands have tried different ways to wear our safety harnesses under our jackets and have the safety strap come out the jacket neck or over the hood, or not wear one at all because of the hassle,” says Kevin Yarbrough, a subdivision developer in Cumming, GA, and avid deer hunter. “I’ve known guys who wouldn’t wear a safety strap because of the hassle and discomfort, and I thought, there has to be an effective, clean method of having the strap go through the jacket and still keep the cold and rain out.”

Yarbrough tested and refined his concept for Jacketport, a patent-pending grommet-like device that installs permanently on the upper back area of a hunting jacket, allowing one end of the outer safety strap easy and comfortable access to the hunter’s safety harness underneath while the other end attaches to the tree.

“I hope because it is so easy to install and keeps the cold and rain out, more hunters will use it and wear their harnesses secured to the tree so they will be safer in the woods this year,” said Yarbrough.

Again this year, hunter safety advocacy associations are sounding the alarm that tree stand related fatalities and accidents outnumber firearm related injuries and deaths. Leading the effort to reduce tree stand injuries and deaths among gun and bow hunters alike is the National Bowhunter Education Foundation (www.nbef.org). Its website declares that, “Hunters need to start taking tree stand safety as seriously as they take firearms safety.”

According to the NBEF, “Every hunter in America knows that they should wear a fall-restraint device, yet only about 50 percent do…Unfortunately, many hunters believe it will always be the other guy who falls and it will never happen to them. Most accidents could be prevented if hunters would just use the safety gear and instructions provided with the tree stand product.”

While tree stand accidents and deaths happen for a number of reasons, falling while asleep, accidentally falling or having a faulty or improperly attached tree stand give way, are the three main reasons. In each of those cases, hunters not secured to the tree will be hurt or killed.

Yarbrough said experience tells him the inconvenience and discomfort of finding a way to run the safety strap to the safety harness under the outer jacket contributes to the high incidence of lack of use of the safety harness.

“I hope Jacketport will cut into these statistics,” he said.

For more information, please visitwww.jacketport.com.

Tags: Hunting