< Back to Previous Page North Carolina Needs To Adopt Mandatory Boating Safety Requirements Recreational boating deaths: a SERIOUS problem • Recreational boating is fun, but the water can be unforgiving. • An average of 714 boaters die each year; 508 of those by drowning. • Deaths are the result of 2 major safety failures: lack of a required personal flotation device (PFD) and uneducated boaters. • Most parents would not drive anywhere without their kids in seatbelts, car seats or booster seats. Parents should not hesitate to protect children, on the water, in a life jacket. • Most of those who drown were in open motorboats (51 percent) and in boats less than 21 feet in length (71 percent). • PFD wear is effective. Boating accident data shows that when mandatory PFD requirements are adopted, drowning fatalities go down. • About 84 percent of these drowning victims would still be alive, if they had worn PFDs (U.S. Coast Guard estimate). • Eighty percent of recreational boat operators involved in accidents had never completed a boating safety education course. • Education works! The recreational boating industry and the Safety Board want all recreational boaters to complete a boating safety education course. • As of March 2006, 46 States and the District of Columbia have enacted laws requiring children to wear PFDs. One State is considering legislation (Wisconsin). Iowa, Virginia, and Wyoming need mandatory PFD wear requirements. • Is your State one of these 17 States that need to act to adopt mandatory boating education safety requirements? (Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming). National Transportation Safety Board How to curb recreational boating accidents and deaths? Establish a State minimum boating safety program that includes: • Requiring children, under age 13, to wear PFDs • Requiring all State recreational boating operators to complete a boating safety education course • Requiring a recreational boating operator’s license

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