In a recent report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, there were 714 reportable accidents from 2016 compared to 766 in 2017. There was also a rise in the number of registered boating vessels in Florida, which increased from over 930,000 in 2016 to over 944,000 in 2017.
Of last year’s accidents, 67 were fatal. Although the number of accidents has increased, the number of deaths remained constant since 2003.
Florida leads the number of boating accidents and boating deaths in the country. In 2016, Florida had almost 300 more accidents than California, the second-leading state with 384 total.
The leading cause of boating accidents in 2017 was the operators’ inattention and lack of lookout, which came to 24 percent. The leading type of fatal accidents was drowning by falls overboard.
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This article appears in May 16-22, 2018.