Journal of Accident Investigation

BRUCE G. COURY
adult PFD requirement would not float in the recreational
boating community, and suggested alternatives for increasing
PFD use including boater education, operator licensing, and
better design and marketing of PFD technologies.
SAFETY BOARD STUDIES OF
RECREATIONAL BOATING
The Safety Board has a long history of working to improve
recreational boating safety including five safety studies
dating back to 1969. The early studies focused on the safety
risk factors in recreational boating, with studies in 1983 and
1988 specifically addressing the role of alcohol in boating
accidents. The most comprehensive examination of PFD wear
by the Board was completed in 1993. Using 407 fatal accident
investigation reports provided by 18 States, the study was able
to compile statistics on a number of factors, including PFD use,
boat operating skills and knowledge, and alcohol involvement.
The study found that 73 percent of the fatalities were due
to drowning, a figure consistent with the Coast Guard’s
1999-2003 average of 70 percent. In addition, the study
found as few as 7 percent, and no more than 22 percent, of
first-time boat operators had taken some type of voluntary
boating course.
One aspect of the 1993 study that continues to be a concern
today is the proportion of children who drown, especially those
without PFDs. The 1993 study resulted in five recommendations.
Safety Recommendation M-93-1, issued to the Governors
and legislative leaders of the States, U.S. Virgin Islands, and
Puerto Rico, and the Major of Washington, DC, called for a
requirement that all children wear PFDs. Most of the States
(4 ) have since enacted mandatory PFD wear requirements for
children, but variability in requirements remains. As of February
200 , States (Iowa, New Mexico, Virginia, Wisconsin, and
Wyoming) did not require children to wear PFDs, and 13 States
had inconsistent age requirements.
In 2002, the Coast Guard enacted 33 Code of Federal
Regulations (CFR) Part 17 Subpart B, Personal Flotation Devices,
regulations governing Federal waters (with the final rule going
into effect in July 2004). These regulations require any child
under 13 to wear a PFD while the boat is underway unless
the child is below decks or in an enclosed cabin. During its
rulemaking activities for the 2002 Federal regulation change,
the Coast Guard showed evidence to justify a requirement that
children under the age of 13 wear PFDs.
The need for better education of recreational boaters was
also addressed in Safety Recommendation M-93-1, as well
as in M-93-9 to the National Association of State Boating
Law Administrators (NASBLA) and M-93-14 to the Coast
Guard. Those recommendations asked the Coast Guard and
NASBLA to develop guidelines that would be used by States
to implement recreational boating standards to reduce the
number and severity of accidents, and to consider requirements
that operators demonstrate knowledge of safe boating rules and
skills. The recommendations were based in part on accident
data that indicated that boaters involved in fatal boating
accidents exhibited a lack of safe boating knowledge, practices,
and skills. Safety Recommendation M-93-13 asked the Coast
Guard to use its funding authority, through the memorandum of
understanding signed biennially by the States, to require a plan
for increasing PFD use.
THE ADULT PFD USE PROBLEM
Little has changed since the Safety Board issued
recommendations in 1993: about the same number of people
drown each year in recreational boating; adult PFD use remains
stubbornly low; and a large majority of boaters involved in
fatal boating accidents have not received any boating safety
instruction. Although the data seem to indicate that a PFD
requirement for all occupants in small recreational boats could
save lives, no States have passed such laws. These accident data
and inaction at both the Federal and the State levels led the
Safety Board to conclude that a public forum exploring issues
related to PFD wear in recreational boating was warranted.
The extent of the problem was clearly and succinctly
presented by the Coast Guard at the forum. In 2003, there were
703 fatalities in recreational boating accidents; 481 (68 percent)
were drowning victims, and 416 of them (86 percent) were not
wearing PFDs. In addition, nearly 70 percent of all drownings
(and more than 60 percent of all fatalities) occurred as the result
of capsizing, falls overboard, and swamping (table 2). The size of
the boat also matters; 7 of 10 people who drown were in a boat
21 feet or less in length. These statistics are remarkably similar
to the statistics reported in the 1993 study; 73 percent of the
fatalities were due to drowning, and 80 percent of those who
drowned were not wearing PFDs. Using the 2003 data presented
at the forum, the Coast Guard estimated that approximately 84
percent of the people who drowned would have been saved if
they had been wearing PFDs.
The 2003 statistics were consistent with data from previous
years. Beginning in 1999, the number of fatalities remained
relatively constant, varying less than percent from an average
of 714 per year (table 3). Coast Guard accident and fatality data
for that period indicated that 71 percent of these deaths were
due to drowning (table 4). In addition, Coast Guard statistics
showed that the drownings per 100,000 registered boats remained
constant. As previously mentioned, the most common factor
among drowning victims was the lack of a PFD.
68 NTSB JOURNAL OF ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION, SPRING 2006; VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1