Table 2-16: Recreational Boating Accidents: 2001

Excel | CSV

¹ Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and offshore are included in the U.S. total.

NOTES: 1997 was the first year statistics were compiled for accidents that occurred three or more miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean and nine miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. An accident is listed under one category only, with fatal being the highest priority, followed by nonfatal injury, followed by property damage. For example, if two vessels are in an accident resulting in a fatality and a nonfatal injury, the accident is counted as a fatal accident involving two vessels.

These data do not include: 1) accidents involving only slight injury not requiring medical treatment beyond first-aid; 2) accidents involving property damage of $500 or less; 3) accidents not caused or contributed to by a vessel, its equipment, or its appendages; and 4) accidents in which the boat was used solely as a platform for other activities, such as swimming or skin diving. Such cases are not included because the victims freely left the safety of a boat. However, the data do include accidents involving people in the water who are struck by their boat or another boat.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Coast Guard, Boating Statistics, 2001, Washington, DC: 2002, available at http://www.uscgboating.org/Saf/pdf/Boating_Statistics_2001.pdf as of Sept. 16, 2003.