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Boating Accidents
Click here to place an order for this database

Source U.S. Coast Guard, Office of Boating Safety
Size 219 MB (all years)
Dates Covered 1969-2006
Record Count 79,636 (main table, 1995-2006)
How Available Entire United States
Cost:
  • 50-200 market or circulation below 50,000: $40
  • 26-50 market or circulation 50,000-100,000: $75
  • Top 25 market or circulation over 100,000: $115

    		•



    About the Data:

    The 1995-2006 U.S. Recreational Boat Accident Database consists of four relational tables -- PRIME, DEAD, INJURY and VESSEL -- containing data on recreational boating accidents that resulted in death or injury requiring more than first aid. Accidents involving vessel damage of more than $2,000 or disappearance of a person under circumstances that indicate death or injury are also included.

    For the first time, the U.S. Coast Guard has declined to give 2005 boating accident data for the state of California - the matter is currently pending an appeal. California is included in all the previous years.

    The data files at NICAR cover 1969 through 2006. Between 1994 and 1995, the Coast Guard changed the way the data are broken up into tables and documented.

    Related Resources

    Boat Registration:The database contains information on registered recreational and commercial boats.


    Boating Crashes (Uplink Article):

    This article relays one reporter's experience with boat-accident databases and how she used the state database to comment on the national angle.



    Table Layouts and Sample Data:

  • Dead: Includes information on people who died as a result of the accident, such as their age, blood alcohol content, whether they were wearing a personal floatation device, whether they could swim and how they died. See record layout
    		• DEAD.DBF
    DEAD.XLS
  • Injury: Includes information on injuries sustained as a result of the accident and what kind of treatment the victim received. See record layout
    		• INJURY.DBF
    INJURY.XLS
  • Primary: This table includes when and where the accident occurred, what the weather conditions were, on what day of the week the accident happened, the cause of the accident and whether alcohol was involved in the accident. If using primary.dbf, download primary.dbt to view content of memo fields. See record layout
    		• PRIMARY.DBF
    Primary.dbt
    PRIMARY.XLS
  • Vessel: Includes information on the boats (i.e: model, registration number), the date of birth, blood alcohol content and gender of the operator and what type of activity was involved in the accident. See record layout
    		• VESSEL.DBF
    VESSEL.XLS
    Instructions on opening DBF files in Access


    What you can do: Each summer, millions of people head to the nearest ocean, lake or river for a little time off with the boat and a bottle. There are very few states that require any kind of boat license. Anyone over 21 can rent a boat, canoe or personal watercraft without knowing how to drive one. Laws overseeing alcohol and boats are often weak. Every year, personal watercraft, power boats, houseboats and more are involved in thousands of accidents. Hundreds of people die. The Recreational Boat Accident database allows reporters to find information about the vessels, people and conditions involved in the accident. Because of the simplicity of this database, it is a good one for beginning CAR reporters to use.

    STORIES AND TIPSHEETS FROM THE IRE RESOURCE CENTER:
    To order copies one or more of following stories call the IRE RESOURCE CENTER at 573-882-3364 and give them the FILE NUMBER or TIP SHEET NUMBER. The cost is 15 cents per page for IRE members.

    Story Number: 16952
    This CAR investigation reveals that boats, inexperience and bad decisions are responsible for Wisconsin's boat accidents. Preliminary data shows that this summer may have been one of the safest years in boating, but officials attribute that to the weather than a trend in safety measures.

    Story Number: 20030
    Governing reports that "drunken boating kills hundreds of Americans every year. But the logistics of dealing with it aren't easy to handle." The story reveals that DUI laws are difficult to enforce when it comes to boating.

    Story Number: 22720
    The Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri is the third-most accident-prone waterway in the U.S., after the Atlantic Ocean and the Colorado river, according to U.S. Coast Guard boating accident data from 1995-2004.

    Tipsheet Number: 1171
    This tipsheet outlines several databases that are helpful for investigating transportation safety.