Dr. Lawrence E. "Larry" Thibault
Dr. Thibault, a former Chairman of the School of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, and founded Biomechanics, Inc. at Exton Pennsylvania. As Biomechanics Inc. he represented many propeller accident victims or their survivors. Read More→
Don't Wreck Your Summer - USCG PSA
MBIA quotes the National Marine Manufacturing Association (NMMA) statement on the ads, “in these uncertain economic times it is incomprehensible that the USCG is using taxpayer dollars to push a new ad campaign whose only message is that boating is a dangerous activity.” MBIA says they will tell Congress to require USCG to design ad campaigns focused on “the importance of safety and responsible behavior …”. Read More→
USCG Recreational Boating Statistics 2010
We noticed the U.S. Coast Guard released their annual boating accident statistics report a little over a week ago while we were still engaged in trying to move to our new PropellerSafety.com website. The total fatality count for 2010 was 672 deaths (vs. 736 in 2009). USCG reported 179 propeller accidents and 27 propeller fatalities for 2010. For an historical comparison of propeller accident data, please see our Propeller Accident Statistics page.
Table 17 (Frequency of Events in Accidents & Casualties Nationwide) continued to follow the format they adopted in 2009 based on our and SPIN’s suggestions and helps prevent people from getting Event 1 data (total number of times that event was the first thing to happen in any accident) confused with the total number of Events (the total number of times that event happened in all accidents).
However, Table 16 (Accident, Vessel & Casualty Numbers by Primary Accident Type 2010) still tends to mislead people into reading Event 1 data as the total number of accidents for a specific accident type if they do not read the table very carefully.
Pages 8 and 9 discuss changes to the publication this year (specifically the merger of Tables 17 and 18). That is a little confusing because those tables actually merged in the 2009 report. All the text in the “Changes to the Publication” section of the 2010 report also appear word for word in the 2009 report.
Anyway, its great to see the total boating accident fatality count go down, although it may be a reflection of a poor economy and high fuel costs.
We noticed there was one Event 1 propeller accident involving a houseboat. We will followup on that accident and see if we spot any more houseboat propeller accidents in the full BARD (Boating Accident Report Database) for 2010 when things settle down around here a little bit.
We would like to thank USCG for all the efforts they put into this annual statistical report of boating accidents.
To those not familiar with us, we are an advocate for recreational boat propeller safety and cover all aspects of recreational boat propeller accidents, propeller guards, and other propeller safety devices.
After months of work, today (20 June 2011), we launched PropellerSafety.com . We updated the content previously on our Propeller Guard Information Center site, checked all the links, and converted it to a format much easier to navigate and friendlier to the search engines. Anybody attempting to visit the old pages on the Propeller Guard Information Center should be automatically redirected to the correct new page.
We welcome any comments or suggestions you may have about our new format, and please let us know if you are having trouble finding anything that was on the old website. During the process, we also changed our email address. It is available from the Contact tab in the menu.
We have been talking about changing our format for a couple years. It was just like moving all your personal possessions, very challenging, but we made it. We like our new home and we hope you do to.
Propeller Safety & Propeller Guard Events, Meetings, and Major Developments Prior to June 2011 when we moved to our new format.
26 Jan 2011 – we received a note from ABYC yesterday on the upcoming Propeller Injury Accident Mitigation Workshop at the Miami International Boat Show on February 17, 2011 from 4pm to 5:25pm. Their tentative schedule if below. If you are interested in attending, please contact Helen Koepper at ABYC.
4:00 - 4:05 Welcome and Introduction - Richard Blackman, USCG
4:05 - 4:35 Propeller Guard Update - Guy Taylor, 3PO
4:35 - 5:20 USCG Propeller Injury Avoidance - Bill Daley, CED
5:20 - 5:25 Obtaining the Information from the USCG Studies, Phil Cappel, USCG
The session will be followed by a 5 minute update on Carbon Monoxide Issues