DataWatch: Drugs, alcohol make for deadlier boat accidents

In Wisconsin, boating accidents reported to the Coast Guard that involved drugs or alcohol were nearly 25% more likely to result in injury than accidents not involving drugs or alcohol.

Recreational boaters across the United States are required to report boating accidents that result in death, serious injury, disappearance or significant damage. The Data Liberation Project filed a public request for this data and published it as a database for outside use . The resulting data ranges from 2009 to 2023.

In Wisconsin, there have been 1,574 unique boating accidents over the 15-year period — about 100 per year. Of these accidents, about 88.7% did not have alcohol or drugs reported as a cause. 11.3% involved one or both of these causes.

On average, accidents that involved alcohol or drugs would result in at least one death or serious injury. Half of the accidents reported to the coast guard resulted in death when alcohol or drugs were involved. This is more than 30% more often than incidents where no drugs or alcohol were involved.

Overall, when drugs and alcohol were not involved, about three in four accidents resulted in a death or serious injury.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

DataWatch: Drugs, alcohol make for deadlier boat accidents is a post from Wisconsin Watch , a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.