Boating accidents...

[lncoop]

Re: Boating accidents...

Newbie, I'm a little worried about you. You sound WAY too responsible for a seventeen year old. Heck, you sound more responsible than many thirty year olds I know.

 

[45Auto]

Re: Boating accidents...

In looking at accidents in Maryland over the past 4 years only 4% of the reported 218 accidents involved an intoxicated boater.

You're required to report a fatal accident within 48 hours, and property damage within 10 days. Exactly how many people do you think will voluntarily report that they were drunk when they caused an accident?

http://www.uscgboating.org/safety/accident_reporting.aspx

The Coast Guard BUI (Boating Under the Influence) report estimates that at least 23% of fatalities and 9% of non-fatal injuries result from accidents where alchohol or drugs were a factor.

http://www.uscgboating.org/statistics/contribution_of_bui.aspx

 

[Newbie@boats]

Re: Boating accidents...

Newbie, I'm a little worried about you. You sound WAY too responsible for a seventeen year old. Heck, you sound more responsible than many thirty year olds I know.

I dont think I am WAY to responsible, just responsible.

My father and mother always taught me if I wanted it I had to work for it.

Nothing was ever given to me.

 

[25thmustang]

Re: Boating accidents...

How in the world do they happen?

I remember reading in the paper last summer about 2 seperate boating accidents.

Both happened at night.....

Both boats that got hit were anchored in a cove.

Luckly no one was seriously hurt.

I guess beer and boats just dont mix!

What coves in CT if you don't mind?

 

[lncoop]

Re: Boating accidents...

My little joke was just my way of bragging on you. Props to your folks for imparting that lesson and to you for absorbing it and applying it to your life.

 

[Philster]

Re: Boating accidents...

boating is pretty safe... but still prone to error when a flawed human is at the helm

2002 Data...

Boating Fatalities per 100,000 registered watercraft = 5.9
Road fatalities per 100,000 registered vehicles = 19.06

That is a horrendous use of statistics.

Hour per hour, boat use going to be WAY more dangerous. Boats are not used all that much. My car has logged 12 thousand miles in 12 months, which is incredibly average. In one year, that is about 400-500 hours of driving.

That's a lifetime for many boats. If boats were used as often as cars, the data would be brutal.

It is dangerous.

 

[Begester]

Re: Boating accidents...

Newbie@boats - I absolutely agree and well said!

By a lot of accounts, I'm a "newbie" at age 26, but from my experience, stupidity has no age requirement.

A quick Google Search resulted in the following:

http://www.boatoregon.com/OSMB/safety/Accidents.shtml#2008_Boating_Fatalities

http://www.courtpio.org/personal-injury-statistics-boating-and-personal-watercraft/
---One hundred and thirty-seven (137) boaters died in the 40-49 age group category ? the highest number reported for any age group.---

Another statistic that I think makes a lot of sense is where it said 70% of all reported accidents involve operator controllable factors (carelessness/recklessness, operator inexperience, operating at unsafe speed, and no proper lookout).

 

[Thad]

Re: Boating accidents...

I have to add my half a cent worth here.
While far too many accidents happen because of alcohol, inexperience, or what have you, I think something has been overlooked. I believe a number of these can be attributed to the guy who has been boating for several years or even decades. One can become so confident in their abilities or experience that they no longer take the defensive/alert approach. They quit looking around for any potential problems. They may also feel so comfortable with what they know, they get to a point that they assume the other guy does too. One may be sure he has the right of way and hold course as he is supposed to without thinking the other guy does not know to alter course. As posted earlier, the 40-49 age group was the highest numbers. While any collision, mishap, accident, what ever you want to call it is bad, one can not single out any one reason or group as the main culpret.
The only thing is when alcohol or youth are involved, it makes for a better story at the sympathy level. Just my modest opinion.

Let's all try a little harder this boating season to help educate our fellow boater. If even just a little bit of good information sinks to someones head, we all win.

 

[Philster]

Re: Boating accidents...

More use/misuse of statistics: People 40-49 have the highest percentage of ownership of boats, particularly boats over a given length, speed, power, etc. They do more boating because they can afford it, too.

Kind of like saying that females age 13-17 have the highest incidence of burns from hair-flattening irons. You can't conclude that all women 50-59 years old have mastered the art of using a hair-flattening iron and are safe!

90-99 year old boaters have almost zero accidents. Damn, it's just all that experience they have.

As to the above posts about people getting careless at 40-49: I guess they relearn by the time they are 50?

 

[hubbard53]

Re: Boating accidents...

That is a horrendous use of statistics.

Hour per hour, boat use going to be WAY more dangerous. Boats are not used all that much. My car has logged 12 thousand miles in 12 months, which is incredibly average. In one year, that is about 400-500 hours of driving.

That's a lifetime for many boats. If boats were used as often as cars, the data would be brutal.

It is dangerous.

remember, this is data from all over the US with varying degrees of use. This is as close of a comparison you are going to get. I whoe-heartedly believe that I am much safer on the water than I am on the road. the statistics back that up.

 

[Philster]

Re: Boating accidents...

The statistics say that boating is much more dangerous than driving a road vehicle.

The statistics posted so far show an incident rate that is 1/3 +/- that of road vehicles, but road vehicles log at least 10 times as many hours!

If boating were safer, the number would need to be something like 1/11th of the rate for road vehicles!

 

[45Auto]

Re: Boating accidents...

Boating Fatalities per 100,000 registered watercraft = 5.9
Road fatalities per 100,000 registered vehicles = 19.06

I whoe-heartedly believe that I am much safer on the water than I am on the road. the statistics back that up.

You're right, Philster, it's obvious hubbard53 doesn't understand statistics. Unfortunately, trying to debate someone who doesn't understand them is pretty much a waste of time.

We could also include subs in the safety discussion. Hubbard53, do you have any idea how many privately registered submarines there are in the US? Paul Allen has the fanciest one, I believe it cost him a little over $80 million, but there are lots more. There has NEVER been a death on a privately registered sub. So if we include them in your statistics, as shown below:

Boating Fatalities per 100,000 registered watercraft = 5.9
Road fatalities per 100,000 registered vehicles = 19.06
Sub Fatalities per 100,000 registered underwatercraft = 0.0

we can conclude that subs are much safer than cars or regular boats.

Do you really believe that a submarine is safer than a regular boat?

 

[hubbard53]

Re: Boating accidents...

You're right, Philster, it's obvious hubbard53 doesn't understand statistics. Unfortunately, trying to debate someone who doesn't understand them is pretty much a waste of time.

We could also include subs in the safety discussion. Hubbard53, do you have any idea how many privately registered submarines there are in the US? Paul Allen has the fanciest one, I believe it cost him a little over $80 million, but there are lots more. There has NEVER been a death on a privately registered sub. So if we include them in your statistics, as shown below:

Boating Fatalities per 100,000 registered watercraft = 5.9
Road fatalities per 100,000 registered vehicles = 19.06
Sub Fatalities per 100,000 registered underwatercraft = 0.0

we can conclude that subs are much safer than cars or regular boats.

Do you really believe that a submarine is safer than a regular boat?

wow...now i remember why I left this board awhile ago... you guys here are self-righteous (unnecessary - QC)...

anyway... I actually know quite a bit about statistics; it happens to be part of what I got my first undergrad in (clinical psychology).

Purely based on the statistics as read - incident of fatalities per registered watercraft, you have a better chance of being killed in an automobile than a boat. If you are trying to argue the opposite, I believe you may actually NEED a psychologist

Your hypothetical, unquantifiable "statistic" of fatalities per hours of use is silly too for the simple fact that it is not measureable. And what constitutes "houre of use"? Does being a passenger count? Does sitting anchored count? Silly.

Submarines? Sure, statistically they seem pretty safe - safer than boats...safer than planes...safer than cars...

I'm shocked that you jokers are trying to argue that boating is inherantly less safe than driving a car . . . does it add to your image or something?

 

[QC]

Re: Boating accidents...

Relax guys . . . with that said it blows my mind that any boater could belive that boating is inherently safer than driving a car. Maybe on your own private lake, but nowhere that I boat . . . The additional factors alone cause me to do a double take, can't drown in or on a car unless I fly out the window while I'm on a bridge. Can't hit the bottom, because you drive on it. You have little lines to remind you which direction you should travel. It takes a license, with actual use training. Cars have brakes. Hypothermia is rare in a car . . . it goes on and on and on . . .

 

[hubbard53]

Re: Boating accidents...

Relax guys . . . with that said it blows my mind that any boater could belive that boating is inherently safer than driving a car. Maybe on your own private lake, but nowhere that I boat . . . The additional factors alone cause me to do a double take, can't drown in or on a car unless I fly out the window while I'm on a bridge. Can't hit the bottom, because you drive on it. You have little lines to remind you which direction you should travel. It takes a license, with actual use training. Cars have brakes. Hypothermia is rare in a car . . . it goes on and on and on . . .

well, i guess it is perspective and what you're saying is that the "potential" if something does go wrong is worse with boating. It isnt backed by stats but the fear is still there. Just like flying... your chances of death by plane accident is much, much, much lower than death by car accident but many in the public still fear flying b/c a failure is more catastrophic.

edit: here is an interesting spreadsheet: http://www.bts.gov/publications/national_transportation_statistics/html/table_02_01.html

 

[QC]

Re: Boating accidents...

edit: here is an interesting spreadsheet:

Interesting to me only if there were passenger miles or hours in each category shown. Without that I have to say that is unusable info. I don't believe I can draw any conclusions form that as to the risk of individuals on any given trip . . .

Edit: I just figured it out. This is excellent data if you build caskets.

 

[Newbie@boats]

Re: Boating accidents...

What coves in CT if you don't mind?

Candlewood lake.

 

[Philster]

Re: Boating accidents...

Boats are very safe when sitting on trailers and not being used. That is how they get lower rates of incidents.

Road vehicles are actually used... a lot.

You absolutely cannot compare safety based on rates of ownership! No one is claiming that owning a boat is dangerous! We are talking about boating. BOATING.

Owning a boat is safer than owning a car, because you are much less likely to actually use a boat.

What you need to compare is safety based on use. It is patently absurd to say that owning a boat is safer than owning a car, when we all know the issue here is that using a boat is much more dangerous than using than a car. We know this because, given the sparse amount of use the average boat gets , boats STILL have 1/3 the rate of fatalities.

Using a boat is much more dangerous than using a car. Owning one? Not so much.

Boating is dangerous relative to driving. Owning a boat is not.


...

 

[25thmustang]

Re: Boating accidents...

"On the morning of Saturday, July 19, 2008, two men were killed, and a local firefighter was critically injured when the 24-foot (7.3 m) power boat they were operating while they were intoxicated collided with an 18-foot (5.5 m) Triton fishing boat. Neither of the Triton's passengers sustained life-threatening injuries; however the passing of two local men and the injuries to the third left local government officials to wonder how safe the lake really is, and what can be done to make it safer."

Interesting outcome to the events above. Larger boat hits smaller boat. Two die on larger boat, two on smaller boat have non life threatening injuries. Probably doesn't follow the statistics others are arguing over.

 

[QC]

Re: Boating accidents...

And then four cars, whose drivers were watching the events unfold, inadvertently drove into the water and all 8 occupants were killed proving that cars are less safe than boats . . .