To identify risk factors predicting the involvement of boat operators
in incidents resulting in at least one fatality, the authors obtained
data from a mail survey of registered boat owners in the State of Ohio
and from the Boating Accident Report (BAR) files for 1983-86 compiled
by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Additionally, they revie
wed Ohio death certificates for those years to identify cases missed b
y the BAR system. Forty percent of the fatal incidents would have been
missed by a search of death certificates alone. During the period stu
died, 107 boating incidents resulted in 124 deaths. There were 0.9 fat
al incidents per million boat-operator hours. Factors found to be asso
ciated with an increased risk of a fatal boating incident were the ope
rator being younger than 30 years, having fewer than 20 hours of boat
operating experience, and lacking formal boat safety training. Canoes,
kayaks, rowboats, and inflatables were associated with a higher rate
of fatal incidents per million hours of use than were motorboats. Youn
g age and lack of experience were associated independently with increa
sed risk, explaining some of the effects associated with types of boat
s and with lack of training. The findings suggest that supervised expe
rience, safety training programs aimed at young operators, and interve
ntions specific to certain types of boats are likely to reduce boating
fatalities.