Did you know there are over 8 million Canadians involved in recreational boating activities every year?

On average, there will be roughly 6,000 water related accidents, of which 150 will result in fatalities. Promoting safe boating practices is the best way to reduce the number of careless accidents in which alcohol plays a leading role.

Here are some facts about boating and alcohol that you may not know, taken from BoaterExam.com.

Boating Facts

1. At least 40% of all power-boating fatality victims had a blood alcohol level above the legal driving limit.

2. Fatigue, sun, wind and the motion of the boat dull the senses and alcohol intensifies these effects.

3. There is no distinction between driving a car and driving a boat if the operator is impaired; the offence is the same.

4. More than 60% of drownings occur after the victim accidentally falls off a dock, shoreline or vessel into the water. Autopsies show that more than one-third of the victims of such falls (mostly men) were impaired by alcohol at the time of the accident.

5. More than one-half of boating accidents occur when occupants are standing. Given that alcohol affects balance, anyone who stands up in a boat after drinking alcohol is more likely to fall overboard.

6. As the blood-alcohol level rises, people are less and less capable of coordinating their movements and reflexes. An intoxicated person will find it very difficult to swim or grab onto a lifebouy, regardless of their ability when sober. Alcohol also affects vision.

Blood-Alcohol Levels - Calculating Your Legal Limit

The following chart allows a calculation of when it becomes dangerous to drive after drinking alcohol. The chart was developed by the Toronto Police Department for car drivers, but it also applies to persons operating vessels.

The Criminal Code of Canada reports the legal limit for alcohol as 80 milligrams of ethyl alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood (80 mg%). This is also often expressed as 0.08 grams of ethyl alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.

Note: One drink = 1.5 oz of liquor (40% alcohol) = 5 oz. of table wine (10-14% alcohol) = 12 oz of regular beer (5% alcohol).

Attention: The time elapsed since drinking and other factors can affect the data in the chart. For women, blood/alcohol concentrations are higher than specified in the chart.

It’s no secret that alcohol affects your judgement; I have many embarrassing stories to prove it. An intoxicated person overestimates their abilities or takes risk that they wouldn’t normally take under normal circumstances.

Canadian Boating License

While I have yet to get my Operator Pleasure Craft card, I have vowed that before I step foot in my boat this year, I will have my license. Anyone else interested in joining me?

Here’s to safe boating.

Cheers,

Julie

This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 4:55 am and is filed under Boating. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.