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Editor: Rod Sullivan
Profession: Maritime Attorney

Category: Safety at Sea

A recent radio ad campaign by the Coast Guard asserts that 60% of boat accidents are alcohol related. Let me pull no punches: The Coast Guard's statistics on alcohol and boating accidents are wrong.

The Coast Guard has been patterning its thinking on road accident statistics where alcohol is a major factor in causing collisions. It has also been following the recommendations of the NIAAA. It needs to use its expertise in boating matters and exercise more independent thought when it comes to "alcohol related accidents" on boats.

On the road, alcohol causes accidents because driving requires good eye-hand coordination to keep a vehicle, moving at a high speed, between the lines. On the road, alcohol causes accidents because driving requires quick reflexes to stomp on the brakes when an obstruction is seen ahead. Alcohol inhibits eye-hand coordination and slow down reflexes.

A different set of skills is necessary to operate a boat. Oceans and rivers don't have any white and yellow lines on them yet, and brakes for boats are years from being developed.

Boats and cars are different.

The single biggest factor in serious boating accident is darkness. The second biggest factor is age.

A study published in the New England Journal of Medecine shows that alcohol is not a substantial contributing factor to boating collisions. That's not to say that you can get drunk and go boating---but the types of accidents caused are not collisions. Alcohol contributes to slips and falls and secondary impacts inside moving boats. For those who go in the water, it contributes to hypothermia and subsequent drowning, but not to the collisions themselves.

If the Coast Guard wants to reduce boating fatalities what it needs to do is:

MAKE DOCK OWNERS LIGHT THEIR DOCKS.
MAKE MARINE CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS KEEP FLOODLIGHTS ON AT NIGHT.
MAKE DREDGE OWNERS LIGHT THEIR PIPELINES BETTER.

Secondly, it needs to counsel parents about the hazards of letting young people operate boats at night.

Howland, J.; Smith, G.S.; Mangione, T.; Hingson, R.; DeJong, W.; & Bell, N. Missing the boat on drinking and boating. Journal of the American Medical Association 270(1):91-92, 1993.

Logan P, Sacks JJ, Branche CM, Ryan GW, Bender P. Alcohol-influenced recreational boat operation in the United States, 1994. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 1999;16(4):278-82.