US Coast Guard reports lowest number of boating fatalities on record

[gamayun]

Since National Safe Boating Week is coming up, I bring your attention to the following article and statistic:

Of the 560 people who died in boating accidents last year, 77% had drowned, and of those, 84% were not wearing a life jacket.

https://plus.ibinews.com/article/l5D...l=nP4NgktW2B9K

[OutOfControl]

From your linked article,

"The statistics also revealed that alcohol use was the leading factor in 16% of deaths."

I would have thought it was much higher than reported.

[Tempest245]

Good to see the numbers down..

Perhaps a recession and the high cost of fuel saved some lives. I've noticed a lot of power boats staying close to home and taking fewer outings the last few years.

[MarkJ]

Ohhhhhh! This is an interesting bit:

The most common types of vessels involved in reported accidents were open motorboats, personal watercraft and cabin motorboats.

Obviously a sailboat takes the excessive speed factor out and probably makes it easier to have a better lookout, but it also maybe that sailboats have better operators too..

Pity they didnt give stats for offshore.

[Tempest245]

If I recall correctly the majority of deaths occur in open boats 21 ft or less, on inland waters on a clear day. or something to that effect.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Tempest245

If I recall correctly the majority of deaths occur in open boats 21 ft or less, on inland waters on a clear day. or something to that effect.

More like between 0100hrs and 0400hrs in SMX Lagoon when the pissheads in fast ribs with no lights are headed back to their boats...

[sailorboy1]

wouldn't that be about the time the drunk people return to their boats in their dinghies?

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

wouldn't that be about the time the drunk people return to their boats in their dinghies?

No! I am always later!

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

No! I am always later!

you kids, I just can not stay out drinking that late anymore

[David M]

It looks like inexperience, speed, age and alcohol are the major factors.

[cal40john]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Ohhhhhh! This is an interesting bit:



Obviously a sailboat takes the excessive speed factor out and probably makes it easier to have a better lookout, but it also maybe that sailboats have better operators too..

Pity they didnt give stats for offshore.

One of the things I don't like about their statistics is related to things like the above. If you look at the registered boats section, do some estimations I would say maybe 5% of the boats out there are sailboats. If you say most accidents happened on powerboats and powerboats make up 95% of the population, that doesn't tell you anything. It would make more sense to report percentage of accidents in each classification of boat.

[Tempest245]

Originally Posted by cal40john

One of the things I don't like about their statistics is related to things like the above. If you look at the registered boats section, do some estimations I would say maybe 5% of the boats out there are sailboats. If you say most accidents happened on powerboats and powerboats make up 95% of the population, that doesn't tell you anything. It would make more sense to report percentage of accidents in each classification of boat.

I believe they do.. They breakout a lot of data....

for 2013, there were 99 sailing accidents, and 13 related deaths out of the total of 560 deaths and 5458 vessels involved in accidents

http://www.uscgboating.org/assets/1/...atingStats.pdf