Late Thursday night, when temperatures had climbed into the 80s and the air was summer-sticky, Paul and Arlene Duclos and their friends Ron and Lorraine Locke decided to take a little boat ride along the Androscoggin.

Each couple brought along their respective family dog, one toy poodle and one Pomeranian.

They hauled Paul Duclos’ unregistered boat — which had been in dry storage for more than year — poured fresh fuel in the tank and set off.

None of the four thought to ensure there were life preservers on board, even though Arlene Duclos doesn’t swim.

Soon after they motored away from shore, the engine cut out and the boat was swept along by the strong river current. It was a rain-swollen current one rescuer called “full-bore.”

The boat careened toward the Great Falls and, right at the precipice, got hung up on the rebar-enforced dam grates.

The couples bobbed there, clutching their pets, for more than an hour before rescuers were able to hook the boat and pull it back upstream.

These four adults were exceptionally fortunate. For couples who are otherwise considered responsible community-minded people, they were also implausibly careless.

And, after the couples were pulled ashore, Paul Duclos — a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard — was oddly defensive.

As a Coastie, the below statistics should be familiar to him:

• The most common types of vessels involved in accidents are open motorboats (like the Duclas boat);

• Eight out of every 10 boaters who drowned were using vessels less than 21 feet in length (like the Duclas boat);

• One of the leading causes of boating accidents is machinery failure (like the Duclas boat); and

• Seventy percent of all fatal boating accident victims drowned; and of those, 84 percent were not reported as wearing a life jacket.

While boating may be among the most pleasurable summertime activities we enjoy in Maine, it is also one of the most deadly.

Two weeks ago, Maine wardens recovered the body of a man who was ejected from his boat when it collided with another boat on West Grand Lake.

That man, 65-year-old Vincent Bartolomeo, was not wearing a lifejacket.

The couples who collided with the dam grates in Auburn Thursday were spared Bartolomeo’s fate, but were in grave danger perched there at the edge of the falls. Their position, trapped in the strong current, also endangered rescuers who had to draw near the falls to reach the Duclos boat.

On Friday, the Maine Warden Service summonsed Duclos for having an unregistered boat with no life preservers on board. Good.

There is a lot of water in Maine, along the shore and inland, which means a lot of people, a lot of boats and a lot of opportunity for mishap. Boaters — particularly boat owners responsible for their passengers — absolutely must be held accountable for their safety.

Maine has, according to the Coast Guard’s Recreational Boating Statistics annual report, a statistically higher rate of boater deaths than many other states, including Minnesota — the “Land of 10,000 Lakes.”

Maine’s boating death rate is also higher than Florida and New York, two populous states with a lot of recreational water sports and commercial fishing.

There were fewer deaths in Maine in 2012 than in the previous five years, which is good, but six people did die. That’s six too many.

In the last five years, 43 people have died in 39 separate fatal accidents.

The total number of accidents in that span was 206, which means more than 20 percent of all recent Maine boating accidents resulted in deaths.

That’s a frightening statistic, and one not shared by a lot of other states — including Minnesota (18 percent), Florida (9 percent) and New York (14 percent).

So, while Thursday night may have been perfect weather for a little pleasure cruise, boating is a serious — often deadly — activity that cannot be underestimated.

We’re certain the families and friends of the Ducloses and Lockes are relieved the couples are safe, but statistics indicate that not everyone will be so fortunate this year in Maine.

Every day, every 2.5 hours, someone is injured or dies in a boating accident in this country. And, the chance of drowning when wearing a lifejacket is 1 in 66. Without a jacket? One in 11.

So, to borrow the Coast Guard warning, every time you go out: do a vessel safety check, be familiar with the waterway you’re entering, know your limitation and — more important than anything else — always, always, always wear a lifejacket.

Do everything you can to live to boat another day.

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The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and the editorial board.