5. A Year’s Worth of Boardings (FY 18)
•44,591 rec boat boardings:
36,353 w/ no violations (81.5% compliance rate)
•10,633 vios issued to 8,238 rec boats
725 vios for life jackets (1.6% non-compliance rate)
590 for quantity
53 for condition
46 for size
30 for stowage
1,475 vios for throwables (3.3% non-compliance rate)
6. Boating Fatalities
Year Deaths
2018 629 (-4.5%)
2017 659 (-5.9%)
2016 701
2015 626
2014 610
2013 560
2012 651
2011 758
2010 672
2009 736
• 4th lowest
• Biggest regional dip:
Southwest (91 to 55, -40%),
SE and NE: -10%;
Mountain, Heartland, App: +10%
• Progressive Insurance:
MN and FL to gauge accident
reporting gap (95% gap)
8. Drowning Deaths
•449 of 659 (68.1%) in 2017 caused by drowning
•370 of 449 (82.4%) were not wearing a life jacket
•68 of 449 (15.1%) were wearing a life jacket
•11 unknown
9. Education
•332 of 659 (50.4%) fatalities where education unknown
•Of remaining 327 fatalities, 265 (81.0%) had no education
332 (82.4%) were not wearing a life jacket
•49 of 327 (15.1%) had some education
10. A Look at the Increase in Non-motorized Paddling Vessel Deaths
# Deaths on a Non-motorized
Paddling Vessel
Total Deaths (where
motorization known)
% of Deaths on a Non-motorized
Paddling Vessel
2005 139 685 20.3%
2006 151 697 21.7%
2007 144 673 21.4%
2008 170 702 24.2%
2009 198 730 27.1%
2010 185 663 27.9%
2011 211 749 28.2%
2012 157 638 24.6%
2013 153 547 28.0%
2014 178 598 29.8%
2015 181 620 29.2%
2016 199 683 29.1%
2017 196 647 30.3%
12. Life Jacket Wear Rate Study
• Open Motorboats, adults: 6.4% from 7.0% (2nd highest)
• All boaters: 23.2% from 24.8%
• All adults: 11.9%, remained same (tied for highest)
• All youth: 67.8% from 71.9%
• Lowest wear rate from 0-5 YOA: 90.4%
• All paddlecraft, adults: 80.0% from 93.2% (SUPs went up)
• All sailboats, adults: 36.4% (highest; youth rate dipped)
• D1 Life Jacket Wear Rate Initiative
17. USACE Mississippi Lakes
Number of Boating Related Fatalities
66.67% decrease
USACE Vicksburg District Public Water-related Fatalities
FY2014: No fatalities
FY2015: One fatality (Sardis Lake)
FY2016: Four fatalities (Arkansas Lakes)
FY2017: No fatalities
18. D1 Life Jacket Wear Initiative
A vessel safety check and a life jacket
puts you in a lower boarding bracket.
Sector Long Island Sound.
19. Dana Gage
• Chicago Marketing Firm
• Fortnight
• James Charles
• Rick and Morty
• Bouyant short
• Old Orange Life Jacket
• Targeting Teens
20. NRBSS
• Response rates met (Exposure, 30K and Participation, 5K)
• Data cleaning continues
• Final Survey Reports are due on 21 Oct
• Final Methodological Report on 21 Oct
• Data Access and Query System (DAQS)
• IBWSS
• $1.5M
• Next surveys now 2021 and not 2020 and 2023
21. National Recreational Boating Safety Survey
(1) Was a life jacket / vest
present for each person aboard
the boat during the last outing?
(2) Were all persons aboard
wearing their life jackets / vests the entire time
during the outing?
24. Projected Vessel Registrations
• Total registered boats: 11,830,000 (4 states outstanding)
• Change from last year: -1% from 11,961,568
• Highest year: 12,942,414 in 2005
• 12M unregistered boats
• 12,942,414
Year Registered Vessels Change
2011 12.174
2012 12.102 -0.6%
2013 12.014 -0.7%
2014 11.804 -1.7%
2015 11.867 0.5%
2016 11.862 -0.0%
2017 11.962 0.8%
2018 11.830 -1.1%
25. BSX-2 Staffing
• 26 positions (1 AD, 25 Civilian, 2 vacancies)
• Division Chief and Admin Assistant (both thru Fund)
• 11 in Program Management and Operations, BSX-21 (8 thru Fund)
• 6 in Grants Management, BSX-22 (all thru Fund)
• 7 in Product Assurance, BSX-23 (3 thru Fund)
• Management Analyst Position (hope to advertise in June)
• Program Management Position (selected)
• YN1 Lucie Michel replacing Mr. Theo Bennett
• Shutdown furloughed six for five weeks
• Eight RBS Specialists in Districts (D14 has none)
• Mr. Paul Barnard, D8
• Mr. Paul Neuman, D11
26. FY2019 RBS Funds Distribution
• FY19 Transfer from DOI:
• Less Sequestered Funds:
• Sequestered FY18 Funds Returned:
• RBS Program Admin:
• NPO Grants:
• Unused Prior FY Admin Funds:
• Recovered Prior FY Grant Funds:
• State RBS Distribution:
$116,999,410
$7,253,963
$7,515,616
$8,167,932
$5,454,657
$78,199
$963,190
$104,679,863
27. State Compliance Program
• 1. Application for CON not in compliance with 1/1/2017 changes.
• 2. CON not in compliance with 1/1/2017 changes.
• 3. TEMP CON does not contain the required information.
• 4. Collection of fees not allowed under federal statue/regulations.
• 5. NAVRULES are not in agreement.
• 6. PFD type codes still in state regulation/law.
• 7. HIN validation process not established or is incomplete.
• 8. Vessel classifications not in agreement with federal minimums
(SNS change effective 1/1/2017).
• 9. Boating Accident Reporting timeframes not met.
28. Next Six Months
• All vacancies filled
• NRBSS completed
• Regulatory projects: UCOTA-V NPRM and Fire Protection
• Virtual Visit Program
• Outreach Strategic Plan
• Start to better project deaths
• Better gauge reporting gap
• SOP completion
29. The Calendar
• Western State Boating Administrator Association (WSBAA); Oklahoma City,
OK; 12-15 May 2019
• American Boating Congress; Washington, DC; 13-15 May 2019
• Life Jacket Association Annual Meeting, 14-15 May 2019
• Wear Your Life Jacket to Work Day, 17 May 2019
• National Safe Boating Week, 18-24 May 2019
• Operation Dry Water, 5-7 Jul 2019
• Paddlesports Retailer Show; Oklahoma City, OK; 26-29 Aug 2019
• NASBLA Annual Meeting; Anchorage, AK; 29 Sep-2 Oct 2019
• NBSAC 102; Washington, DC; 22-24 Oct 2019
• NBSAC 103; TBD; 21-23 Apr 2019
• NBSAC 104; Washington, DC; 6-8 Oct 2019
Editor's Notes
The program’s effect includes the saving of 61,000 lives since its inception in 1971.
Great initial progress, but now asymptotic.
Even despite the lack of confidence in injuries, we still have far more deaths and injuries from recreational vessels
The Mississippi lakes went from 12 boating related drownings to 4 drownings for a 66.67% decline. Interestingly the drowning rates at the other lakes in the Vicksburg District also went down by 45% (from 11 to 6 boating related drownings). What is also interesting is the swimming related drownings. The 4 MS lakes had a 55% decline in swimming fatalities (11 to 5) but the other Vicksburg District lakes basically stayed the same (12--> 11).
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 there were no public recreation fatalities in Vicksburg District. That was the first year that has ever happened. In FY2015, there was one fatality within Vicksburg District at Sardis Lake. In FY2016, there were four fatalities in Vicksburg District (3 at Lake Ouachita and 1 at DeGray Lake, which are lakes in Arkansas). In FY2017, once again there were no fatalities in Vicksburg District and for Mississippi Valley Division there were only three fatalities.
Admiral, lease take no offense in the following trivia question about your home state.
We are reaching in. Life jacket wear is the single biggest ting we can do to save lives (MS lakes example).
More lives lost than for the entire commercial vessel inspection program.
Wear your life jacket to work day.