In its 2017 Recreational Boating Statistics, USCG reported a 6.1% decrease in boating fatalities from 2016, with a total of 658 incidents in the country this year. From 2016 to 2017, recreational boating injuries also decreased 9.4% from 2,903 to 2,629, and the total number of accidents decreased 3.9% from 4,463 to 4,291. However, the report also shows it was the second highest number of fatalities on record in the last five years.
Capt. Scott Johnson, chief of the Office of Auxiliary and Boating Safety at Coast Guard Headquarters, stated:
Although these lower numbers are encouraging, I ask those who boat to continue to do so responsibly, especially by donning a life jacket. Wearing a life jacket is the single-most important thing you can do to save your life or the life of someone you care about.
Highlights 2017
- The fatality rate was 5.5 deaths per 100,000 registered recreational vessels. This rate represents a 6.8% decrease from last year’s fatality rate of 5.9 deaths per 100,000 registered recreational vessels.
- Property damage totaled approximately $46 million.
- Alcohol continued to be the leading known contributing factor in fatal boating accidents.
- Operator inattention, improper lookout, operator inexperience, machinery failure, and alcohol use rank as the top five primary contributing factors in accidents.
- Where the cause of death was known, 76% of fatal boating accident victims drowned.
- Of those drowning victims with reported life jacket usage, 84.5% were not wearing a life jacket.
- Where boating instruction was known, 81% of deaths occurred on vessels where the operator had not received boating safety instruction.
- The most common vessel types involved in reported accidents were open motorboats, personal watercraft, and cabin motorboats.
- The vessel types with the highest number of fatalities were on open motorboats, kayaks, and personal watercraft.
- There were 172 accidents in which at least one person was struck by a propeller. Collectively, these accidents resulted in 31 deaths and 162 injuries.
Johnson cited a case where an 18-year-old victim who had been preparing to wakeboard unexpectedly fell overboard with a life jacket in his hand. He never resurfaced.
When you need a life jacket, you need it on, not in your hand or stowed away out of reach on your boat. This tragedy was entirely preventable.
In addition, Johnson warned boaters of the impacts of alcohol use, noting a case in Connecticut where two inebriated people onboard a 32-foot boat were killed when their boat crashed into a breakwater. According to Johnson, alcohol was the leading factor in 19% of deaths.
As a career Coast Guardsman, where it is my mission to prevent accidents and save lives on the water, it is extremely frustrating to see cases where something as simple as wearing a life jacket would have made the difference for life over death for 84.5% of the drowning cases.
The Coast Guard reminds all boaters to boat responsibly on the water:
- Wear a life jacket,
- Take a boating safety course,
- Attach the engine cut-off switch,
- Get a free vessel safety check, and
- Boat sober.
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