NEW: Sailing Has Higher Fatality Rate Than Football, According to Study
Monday, April 04, 2016
Sailing has a higher fatality rate than football and downhill skiing, according to a study from Rhode Island Hospital based on data from the U.S. Coast Guard ranging from the years 2000-2011. Falls overboard, high winds and operator inattention are known factors lifting American sailing death rates, with alcohol implicated in 15% of all sailing deaths.
Sailing vs. Football & Skiing/snowboarding
The Coast Guard keeps a database of the reports, they must by law, and researchers analyzed the 4,180 reports detailing the 271 deaths and 841 injuries. Researchers estimated the fatality rate at 1.19 deaths per million sailing person-days.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTBy comparison, fatality rates for alpine skiing and snowboarding are 1.06 per million skier/snowboarder person-days. During the 11-year study period, 271 deaths were related to sailing versus the 197 indigents of American football players who died during play or practice.
Causes of Death
“Drowning was the most common cause of death and, sadly, 82 percent of drowning victims were not wearing a life jacket. Death and injury can be prevented when skippers and passengers wear life jackets, abstain from alcohol while boating, and maintain proper vigilance," said Andrew Nathanson, M.D., an emergency medicine physician at Rhode Island Hospital and clinical professor of emergency medicine at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
The majority of sailing-related deaths during 2000 and 2011 happened when boaters fell into the water. Alcohol intoxication was the leading preventable factor contributing to death, followed by operator inexperience and inattention.
Together, operator-preventable contributing factors were associated with 37 percent of all fatalities. Weather or hazardous waters were listed as primary contributing factors in 28 percent of deaths.
“Neither experienced nor novice boaters were spared from injuries and death. The boating accident reports chronicled mishaps from day sailing on a small boat on a lake, to cruising a catamaran along the coast, to racing competitively in a regatta. For the eight million people who go sailing at least once a year in the United States, the risks must be understood," Nathanson said.
Nathanson's study was published in the journal Wilderness and Environmental Medicine.
Rhode Island Hospital
Founded in 1863, Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, R.I., is a private, not-for-profit hospital and is the principal teaching hospital of the Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
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