A total of 4,730 accidents recorded by the CG in 2009 caused 736 deaths, over 3,300 injuries and about $36 million in property damage, according to the report. A number called the fatality rate, which compares the number of annual deaths against the number of registered boats, increased to 5.8 deaths per 100,000 registered boats in 2009. The top 5 contributing factors to the accidents included boat operator inattention and inexperience, excessive speed, improper lookout and alcohol consumption. The report states that alcohol consumption "continues to be of major concern" in fatal accidents, and was the leading factor in 16% of deaths. In addition, a full 86% of boat operators involved in fatal accidents had not received boat safety instruction. "Nearly 75% of the 736 people who died in boating accidents in 2009 drowned, and 84% of those victims reportedly were not wearing a life jacket," said Rear Adm. Kevin Cook, the CG's director of prevention policy. "The 2 most important things boaters can do to prevent the loss of life is to wear a life jacket and take a boater education course.


Some info...most insurance companys will give you a discount on your insurance to take a boating safety course....

Geno is there breakdown on this as far as accidents involving jet skis over accidents involving boats? just curious.

Haven't seen last years yet, the majority of fatal's are in boats less than 16' IIRC, jon boats and skis.

The CG has a table that breaks it down in just about every possible way. I'll see if I can find the new one.

EDIT Looks like it's open motor vessels 20' and under. I didn't spend much time reading, tables on page 39, 40 and 45 tell the story. Doesnt specifically mention jon boats, which I thought it had previously.

Here you go.

http://www.uscgboating.org/assets/1/...ations/394.PDF it's about 5mb

That number includes jet skis...
But by getting a daily report of all boating accidents...the number of jet ski accidents is not as high as I would have thought..plus it appears that most of the jet ski accidents result in injuries not deaths...
Its still blows my mind in these reports how many were not wearing life jackets....

Of course you can take statistics any way you want,

but if you are an inexperienced boater aged 36-55 who operates a outboard propellor driven open boat less than 20' and you go boating with one other person in Florida, you fit the profile of the most likely to drown.