Personal watercraft (PWC) are a type of recreational boat that has become increasingly popular in recent years. Although the overall number of recreational boating fatalities has been declining in recent years, the number of personal watercraft-related fatalities has been increasing. PWC are the only type of recreational vessel for which the leading cause of fatalities is not drowning; in PWC fatalities, more persons die from blunt force trauma than from drowning. The National Transportation Safety Board initiated this study to more closely examine fatalities and injury in addition to accident characteristics associated PWC accidents. The Safety Board analyzed 814 (one-third) of the 1997 reported accidents and examined all of the data for the 1996 reported accidents, which the Board believes provided a substantial number of accidents to identify the most important safety issues associated with PWC accidents. The safety issues discussed in the report include (1) protecting PWC riders from injury; (2) PWC operator experience and training; and (3) boating safety standards. The study also addressed the need for recreational boating exposure data.
National Transportation Safety Board Safety Study: Personal Watercraft Safety
1998
106 pages
Report
No indication
English
Recreation , Marine & Waterway Transportation , Fatalities , Injuries , Accident research , Safety , Boats , Characteristics , Design , Accident prevention , Safety design , Recommendations , Accident types , Experience , Education , Personal watercraft(PWC) , PWC(Personal Watercraft) , Accident characteristics , Recreational boating