Boat Safety Lessons Learned from Boating Accidents

Article on “Top 23 Worst Boating Accidents in 20 Years” teaches lessons of boat safety

Boating is one of the best recreational activities, but the rules of the water must be taken seriously.

As we cruise the bay each year, we witness our share of reckless behavior on the water. We see boaters not observing the right of way, not using navigation lights or young kids not using a proper life jacket. Maybe these boaters don’t know any better? Or maybe they are just plain stupid.

With the boating season beginning in most areas, it’s important to be reminded of boat safety rules. You need to be cautious and expect the unexpected to avoid the worst case scenarios of accidents on the water.

23 Worst Boating Accidents in 20 Years

We inevitably hear the horror stories of accidents on the water. And there are some unbelievable boat accident stories that have happened over the years.
In fact, SafeBoater.com put together a list of the 23 of the Worst Boating Accents over the Past 20 Years proving that boating can be dangerous and deadly.

These are accidents from all over the world and have impacted everyone from a wedding party, to seniors, to fisherman. Most of these accidents could have been avoided if proper rules of boating were followed.

In addition to this recap of boating accidents, SafeBoater offers valuable online safety resources to prepare boaters with basic rules of the road and boat safety tips. They have also partnered with BoaterExam.com to offer online tests for boat safety certifications in the U.S. and Canada. In Canada, a pleasure craft operator card is a requirement (as of September 2009), and in some U.S. states a boat safety certification is also required to operate a boat.

Last year we had a tragic accident occur near our marina on the Sassafras River (off of the Chesapeake Bay). A young girl only eleven years old drowned because she was not wearing a youth life jacket. She was sitting on the bow of a Master Craft boat that hit a very large wake and propelled her from the boat. She was found days later in the river.

While these types of accidents are tragic, we can only hope that we learn lessons of boater safety that teach others to be more cautious while boating.

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