Quote:
Originally posted by Evenstar
If you read the article, you woud see that the Chief Warrant Officer was including national waters and roads, so this is not about conditions in just Miami. His first two sentences state: "Collisions between boats are one of the most dangerous and frequently occurring mishaps on our nations waters. In 1996, 5174 boat collisions occurred nationwide."
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Here's what happens when you rely on 12 year old national stats to prove your point. First off, according to
COMDTPUB P16754.10 in 1996 there were 8,026 boating accidents nationwide, not 5,174.
Ten years later in 2006 that number had dropped from 8,026 boating accidents to 4,967 according to
COMDTPUB P16754.20
In the same time period the US saw an increase in the number of Registered boats of 358,184 from 11,877,938 to 12,746,126. So of 12,746,126 registered boats 4,967 were involved in reportable accidents in 2006. I'll let you do the percentage.
The number of registered boats does NOT include documented and unregistered vessels which according to one estimate in 1996 was about 8,000,000. I could not find an estimate of documented and unregistered vessels for 2006.
So with more boats there were nearly half the number of accidents in 2006 as compared to 1996.
Now, what does all this mean for Lake Winnipesaukee and a former CWO of a Coast Guard station in Florida's statements?
Absolutely nothing!