One of the
most comprehensive studies of drinking and boating conducted
in over a decade concludes what some in boating have suspected
for a long time: that a passenger on board a boat has the same
increased risk of being injured or killed as the boat's
operator if both have been drinking.
The study
compared the relative risk of being injured or killed in a
boating accident involving alcohol to see if the risk differed
between the boat operator and the passengers on board.
Conducted by a team of doctors from the Johns Hopkins Center
for Injury Research and Policy and the University of North
Carolina, the results were published in the December 19, 2001
issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"Because
the risk of boating and alcohol has never really been
documented, an easy assumption is that boating fatalities
involving alcohol are the result of a drunken operator
crashing the boat," said Dr. Gordon Smith, associate
professor in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Health who co-authored the report. "But the truth is that
most deaths are due to drowning and the majority involve
falling overboard... Only about half the fatalities involve
operator error and about half of all deaths occur when the
boat is not even moving."
Not only was
there no difference in the relative risk between boat
operators and passengers, it also did not matter if the boat
was underway or stationary and risk did not vary among boat
types. Apparently, alcohol consumption is a great equalizer
because the study also found no difference in risk between
males or females or black or white boaters.
"They
used excellent methodology and this is as credible a
scientific study as you can get, considering the accident data
that's available," said Bill Gossard, senior
transportation safety analyst for the National Transportation
Safety Board. "Certainly, as a result of this study
educational efforts should be reoriented to the passengers as
well as the operator."
The study
analyzed 221 fatalities among boaters 18 and older in Maryland
and North Carolina that occurred between April and October
from 1990 to 1998. These fatalities were compared with a
control group in the same states and boating areas. The
control group was obtained from over 3,000 on-the-water
interviews and breathalyzer tests during the same months over
three summers, 1997 to 1999.
The most
sobering findings were that one's relative risk of dying
increased with the boater's blood alcohol concentration (BAC),
and even a slightly elevated level created a significant risk.
A BAC of .05, which is within the legal limit for driving a
car, made a boater four times more likely to die in an
accident. A boater with a BAC of .10 was 10 times more likely
to die; a BAC of .25 brought the risk to more than 50 times.
This risk did not vary between operator or passenger.
The study
found that 30% to 40% of boaters surveyed for the control
group reported drinking while boating. Since it is well known
that alcohol impairs one's balance and coordination, a fall
overboard can be deadly since the alcohol will also impair
one's ability to survive once in the water, the report points
out.
Some safety
campaigns have applied the "designated driver"
concept for automobiles to boats, but this new report casts
doubt on this approach. "If you've got a stone-cold sober
boat operator and an impaired passenger, that passenger is
still at high risk," said Dr. Robert D. Foss, research
scientist at UNC who also worked on this project. Having a
"designated skipper" may actually give passengers a
false sense of security in thinking it's okay to drink to
excess on a boat as long as a boat operator stays sober. The
latest research clearly shows this is not the case.
While
virtually every state has a law banning boating while under
the influence (BUI), and the U.S. Coast Guard likewise has set
.08 BAC as the federal standard for intoxication, state laws
only pertain to the operator of a vessel. Utah passed a bill
this spring banning an open alcohol container in the hand of a
skipper, however enforcement will be difficult.
"The
big challenge is to change the prevailing thinking that it's
safe to drink as long as you're not the one at the helm,"
said Jim Ellis, head of the Boat U.S Foundation for Boating
Safety and Clean Water. "This study reemphasizes the
important point that measures to reduce deaths and injuries
from BUT have to go far beyond the boat operator."
COPYRIGHT
2002 Boat Owners Association
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group
