There’s no evidence that this study examined drinking on whitewater; however, we thought that it was of general relevant interest to the whitewater community. Please paddle safely and exercise personal responsibly in all your decisions.
Study on lake and flatwater recreation shows alcohol boosts death risk for boat passengers as well as operators
By DAVID WILLIAMSON
UNC News Services
CHAPEL HILL – Recreational boat passengers are just as likely asoperators to die as a result of drinking alcohol, according to a new studyof boating deaths in North Carolina and Maryland. One reason the studyrevealed was that passengers who have been drinking often topple overboardand drown.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill andJohns Hopkins University say their results indicate that efforts to reduceboating deaths that target only operators fail to protect many boaters atrisk. Different approaches that will address all boat occupants are needed.
“It’s not just crashing into other boats or piers that is causingthe deaths,” said Dr. Robert D. Foss, research scientist at the UNC HighwaySafety Research Center. “Frequently, people who have been drinking fall inthe water even if a boat is not moving, become disoriented and drown.”
Actress Natalie Wood apparently died that way 20 years ago inNovember after falling off her stationary yacht in California.
A report on the study appears in the Dec. 19 issue of the Journal ofthe American Medical Association. Besides Foss, authors include Drs. GordonS. Smith, Penelope M. Keyl and Jeffrey A. Hadley of the Johns HopkinsUniversity Center for Injury Research and Policy, Dr. James McKnight of thePacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, William Tolbert of Rho Inc.of Chapel Hill and Christopher Bartley of the UNC Highway Safety ResearchCenter.
The population-based, case-control study involved reviewing 221boating deaths recorded in North Carolina and Maryland medical examinerfiles between 1990 and 1998 and comparing them with a probability sample of3,943 boaters from both states. Victims studied were all over age 18.Commercial boat accidents were excluded.
Even with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of only .01 percent, therisk to operators and passengers increased 30 percent over people with noalcohol in their blood, Foss said. The risk of death was more than 52 timesgreater when victims showed a blood alcohol content of .25 milligrams perdeciliter.
“The estimated risk associated with alcohol use was similar forpassengers and operators and did not vary by boat type or whether the boatwas moving or stationary,” Foss said. “People often assume thatalcohol-related boating accidents involve a collision,” he said. “Thathappens, of course, but most deaths result from drowning, often when boatsaren’t moving at all.”
About 80 percent of boating fatalities result from drowning, the team found.”Just falling out of the boat and drowning is surprisingly common,” he said.”That means prevention activities oriented toward boat operators alone won’twork as well as they do with drivers on the roads. If you’ve got astone-cold sober boat operator and an impaired passenger, that passenger isstill at high risk.”
The “crazed drunken boater” ramming his boat into a dock or another boat is”a pretty rare phenomenon,” Foss said. As a result, simply using adesignated driver for a boat or setting a blood alcohol content limit forboat operators leaves much of the problem unaddressed.
Besides analyzing medical examiner data, investigators spent three summersinterviewing and obtaining breath measurements from boaters across NorthCarolina and Maryland as part of their research.
“Before we did the study, we had a fairly good idea about the risk curve fordrinking drivers on the road, but we had no idea about the risk for boaterswho had been drinking,” Foss said. “This study gives us the first look atthe shape of the risk curve for boaters.”
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism supported theresearch. About 800 people died in the United States in 1998 fromrecreational boating accidents, and early studies have linked more than halfsuch deaths to alcohol use.
Countries such as Canada and Finland have even higher proportions ofalcohol-related boating fatalities than the United States does, theresearchers said.
For more information email Foss at rob_foss@unc.edu.