A Rising Tide of Watercraft Injuries

After being injured several times on dirt bikes, Rick Dennis decided to switch to something he thought was safer but just as exciting--a water-jet-powered personal watercraft.

“I like the physical challenge,” said Dennis, coasting to a stop after skimming the lake at 40 mph on his Yamaha Wave Runner 2.

But these increasingly popular small craft--which include Kawasaki’s Jet Ski brand--may not be as safe as Dennis thought they were. Although they make up less than 10% of all registered boats, so-called PWCs account for 36% of vessels involved in accidents, according to Coast Guard statistics.

The 4,070 accidents in 1997 included 1,812 injuries and 84 deaths.

As of June, there had been 36 boating accidents this year on Lake Lanier, the nation’s busiest man-made lake, with 19 involving PWCs. Fifteen people were hurt in the PWC crashes on the lake 45 miles north of Atlanta, including a woman whose jaw was broken when her 14-year-old son lost control and ran over her in knee-deep water.

“When you get into a boating accident with a conventional boat, you have a measure of protection,” said Mark Williams, the chief park ranger for the Corps of Engineers at Lake Lanier. “By the nature of the way PWCs are operated, with quick turns and high speeds, and the fact [that] you have no real protection,” he said, there’s a greater potential for injury.

PWCs can hit speeds as high as 60 mph, and they can rapidly spin 360 degrees.

And since their direction is controlled by their water jets rather than by rudders, PWCs can’t be steered unless they have power.

“Something we see all the time is someone heading right for a dock or someone else and kill the throttle, but then they can’t steer out of the way and crash,” said state Department of Natural Resources ranger Stephen Adams.

And they’re easily accessible.

“You can go out and buy one of these things for under $10,000, and that puts a lot of unqualified people out there,” said Dale Clayton, a ranger stationed on Lake Lanier.

The average cost is less than $7,000 and rentals also are widely available, even to first-timers.

Any new PWC comes with a safety training video, and operators in most states are required to wear a life jacket.

Georgia recently strengthened its boating laws to require PWCs to stay 100 feet from other boats. But they can still jump other boats’ wakes, one of the most popular maneuvers.

“Our approach is that these are boats, and as with any other kind of boat, it requires a sense of responsibility on everybody’s part,” said Larry Lambrose, executive director of the Personal Watercraft Industry Assn., which reports 1997 sales of $1.1 billion. “We are talking about giving access to boating to a whole other population out there, and usually these accidents occur within the first hour of operation, when people don’t know how to operate it.”

As a lifelong fisherman, Bill White knows all too well what happens when newcomers get on their PWCs, saying he’s had lines cut and tangled and nearly been tipped over by people buzzing him.

That’s why he’s taking it extra careful on his new PWC.

“I used to hate them, but then I made the mistake of trying my brother-in-law’s out,” White said, astride his gold Bombardier Sea-Doo. “Then I got hooked. But I made sure to learn all about them, and anyone who gets on this thing is going through a checklist. I’m not going to be part of any statistics.”