Joe Salvatore, superintendent of the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River Park, plans to share stories of the recent drownings with Fourth of July weekend visitors in the hopes of motivating them to wear life jackets.

“It keeps me up at night, knowing there are going to be a lot of people partying on the river,” he said of the upcoming holiday weekend. “People are going to be making bad choices.”

Salvatore said there had not been any drownings in this stretch of the river since 2017, until this past Memorial Day. Since that weekend, four people have drowned here.

A county spokesperson said the drowning victims were Tyre Thomas, 28, of Newark, Delaware, an unidentified 32-year-old from Port Jervis, Michael Cammett, 24, of North Arlington, N.J., and Louis Pellot, 31, of Brooklyn.

Approximately 70 drownings have occurred on the Delaware since 1980.

Salvatore said three of the latest drowning victims were not wearing life jackets and another slipped out of their life jacket.

All four were out-of-towers, Salvatore added, perhaps not familiar with the strength of the river’s undercurrents.

In one case, he recalled, two men jumped off their kayak trying to touch the bottom of the river.

“They didn’t know where they were at,” Salvatore said. “They didn’t know how deep it is. They went down to touch the bottom. Two went down. One came up.”

Upper Delaware Council Executive Director Laurie Ramie believes the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions may have factored into an increase in new visitors and risky behavior.

“Maybe they’re being a little careless because of the jubilation of just being free again and being able to visit these spots,” she said.

Ramie, Salvatore, a limited staff and a handful of volunteers have been posting a bright new life jacket warning all over Sullivan County’s river towns, as well as on social media.

Life jackets are commonly available to use for free at any nearby livery or river recreation business.