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BOATING SAFETY REPORT
Tom Stienstra, San Francisco Chronicle
7/24/03
The California Boating Safety Report was released this past week and includes some interesting items.
Some advice based on the report: Don't get drunk on a boat; if you are alone on a boat or a lousy swimmer, wear a life jacket 100 percent of the time;
if you own a personal watercraft, such as a Jet Ski, don't let anybody else use it; if you have kids, keep their mitts off the controls.
These and other findings were included in this year's safety report released by the Department of Boating and Waterways.
The best news is that accidents with personal watercraft (PWC) such as Jet Skis have decreased 35 percent in the past five years. That matches a 35- percent decline in accidents involving youth as well as accidents caused by idiotic maneuvers, such as jumping another boat's wake and spraying other vessels.
This success is a clear result of two new laws that took effect in 1998: The minimum age to operate a PWC (or vessels over 15 horsepower) was raised from 12 to 16, and the banning of the most outrageous behavior on PWCs, such as wake-jumping within 100 feet of a boat, spraying another boat or playing "chicken" with others.
That's the good news. Much of the rest is not.
The accident rates for PWCs such as Jet Skis are still off the charts. PWCs account for only 18 percent of boats, yet were involved in 28 percent of accidents and 40 percent of injuries. Now get this: 70 percent of PWCs involved in accidents were operated by someone other than the registered owner (often kids).
When youth operate a boat or PWC, collisions with other vessels account for 68 percent of the accidents. Another way of saying it: They're lousy boat drivers. But you knew that already, right?
Another shocker is that in the past year, 50 percent of boating fatalities were alcohol related, the highest in 15 years, and of these, 75 percent of the victims were responsible for their own deaths.
Also, 88 percent of those drowning were not wearing a life jacket, and 23 percent of accidents and injuries took place over just nine days, the three- day holidays of Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day.
To get the free 100-page boating safety course, "California Boating, A Course for Safe Boating," phone (888) 326-2822, write Dept. of Boating, 2000 Evergreen St., Suite 100, Sacramento, CA 95815-3888; or link to http://www.DBW.ca.gov.
E-mail Tom Stienstra at tstienstra@sfchronicle.com
Tom Stienstra, San Francisco Chronicle
7/24/03
The California Boating Safety Report was released this past week and includes some interesting items.
Some advice based on the report: Don't get drunk on a boat; if you are alone on a boat or a lousy swimmer, wear a life jacket 100 percent of the time;
if you own a personal watercraft, such as a Jet Ski, don't let anybody else use it; if you have kids, keep their mitts off the controls.
These and other findings were included in this year's safety report released by the Department of Boating and Waterways.
The best news is that accidents with personal watercraft (PWC) such as Jet Skis have decreased 35 percent in the past five years. That matches a 35- percent decline in accidents involving youth as well as accidents caused by idiotic maneuvers, such as jumping another boat's wake and spraying other vessels.
This success is a clear result of two new laws that took effect in 1998: The minimum age to operate a PWC (or vessels over 15 horsepower) was raised from 12 to 16, and the banning of the most outrageous behavior on PWCs, such as wake-jumping within 100 feet of a boat, spraying another boat or playing "chicken" with others.
That's the good news. Much of the rest is not.
The accident rates for PWCs such as Jet Skis are still off the charts. PWCs account for only 18 percent of boats, yet were involved in 28 percent of accidents and 40 percent of injuries. Now get this: 70 percent of PWCs involved in accidents were operated by someone other than the registered owner (often kids).
When youth operate a boat or PWC, collisions with other vessels account for 68 percent of the accidents. Another way of saying it: They're lousy boat drivers. But you knew that already, right?
Another shocker is that in the past year, 50 percent of boating fatalities were alcohol related, the highest in 15 years, and of these, 75 percent of the victims were responsible for their own deaths.
Also, 88 percent of those drowning were not wearing a life jacket, and 23 percent of accidents and injuries took place over just nine days, the three- day holidays of Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day.
To get the free 100-page boating safety course, "California Boating, A Course for Safe Boating," phone (888) 326-2822, write Dept. of Boating, 2000 Evergreen St., Suite 100, Sacramento, CA 95815-3888; or link to http://www.DBW.ca.gov.
E-mail Tom Stienstra at tstienstra@sfchronicle.com
