SACRAMENTO
– Boating accidents in California waters reached a record high
last year, according to a state report Thursday.
The Department of Boating and Waterways said 61 people were
killed and 502 were injured in 963 accidents.
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO – Boating accidents in California waters reached a record high last year, according to a state report Thursday.
The Department of Boating and Waterways said 61 people were killed and 502 were injured in 963 accidents.
A 28-year-old woman was killed late last May at Coyote Reservoir when the personal watercraft she was riding with her boyfriend collided with another personal watercraft.
Fatalities jumped 15 percent from the 53 recorded in 2002. The accident tally was the highest since the state began keeping statistics three decades ago, surpassing the 925 accidents in 1997.
While the number of boating fatalities has risen in the last 10 years, the death count was smaller than it was in the early 1980s when it twice exceeded 100 deaths a year.
Alcohol was a factor in more than a fifth of the deaths and a nearly a third of all those who died were fishing. Drowning was the leading cause of death, killing 37 of the 61 victims, followed by deaths from collisions. Only one of the 37 drowning victims was wearing a life jacket.
A majority of the deaths, accidents and injuries happened in Northern California. Of the 41 deaths in the northern half of the state, 22 happened at lakes, seven on rivers, five along the coast, four in San Francisco Bay and three in the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta.
Of the deaths in Southern California, seven occurred at the coast, six were at lakes and seven happened in rivers, including two in the Colorado River.
In the May death at Coyote Reservoir, officials estimated the driver of the jet ski that rode into the victim’s watercraft was going 30 to 35 mph. The accident happened May 31 in a 5 mph zone close to Sandy Beach.
Almost immediately following the collision several park rangers performed CPR on the woman, but county paramedics pronounced her dead by the time a CALSTAR helicopter arrived on the scene, according to county parks officials.
Victim Rachael Truong was a passenger on her boyfriend’s watercraft when it was broadsided by another jet skier. The driver of the ill-fated vessel escaped with minor injuries.
Truong was riding in front of the vessel’s driver, a passenger position not recommended by watercraft safety advocates. Alcohol and overcrowded conditions were not factors in the collision.
On the Net:
Read the report: www.dbw.ca.gov/PDF/BoatSafety2003.pdf
