Knowing which is the major cause of fatalities involving small boats will help improve your safety when boating.
The major cause of fatalities involving small boats are drowning, lack of personal floatation devices, mechanical faults, overloading boat, bad weather and capsizing.
Some could lead to minor injuries when they occur.
But some could lead to major damages when they occur.
This includes things like a boat capsizing or the occurrence of drowning when you are on a boat.
Which Is The Major Cause Of Fatalities Involving Small Boats
1) Drowning
One of the things that occur when the use of a small boat is involved has to do with the occurrence of a drowning casualty.
This is a very serious casualty when boating.
This is because when it occurs, it leads to the loss of life of the person that is involved.
That is why it is always good to make sure that you avoid any situation that might lead to someone drowning when you are using a boat.
Making sure you avoid the edges of the boat is very important if the surface of the boat does not have a very good traction.
Getting too close to the edge of the boat may lead to you falling into the water if you slip when you are too close to the edge of the boat.
This can lead to drowning if the person is not quickly rescued from the water.
2) Overloading a Boat
Making sure that you have a vital information about a boat like the weight capacity of the boat is very important.
This will help save you from some of the casualties that occur when boating.
This includes conditions like overloading your boat.
When a boat is overloaded, it leads to big problems when the boat faces a bad water wave.
This is even worse when it comes to the use of small boats.
Overloading which is one of the major causes of fatalities involving small boats should be avoided when making use of a boat.
3) Bad Weather
Situations of a bad weather is common when you are making use of a boat.
What is important is how you can maintain safety and not get affected.
When boats are made, they are subjected to a lot of test.
This helps in determining the certain situations in which the boat can operate without having emergencies that will lead to casualties.
Some of these includes the test of the boats in a bad weather condition.
Some of the larger boats are able to perform well when the weather condition is bad.
But this is not the same thing when it comes to small boats.
In small boats, the balance they have is not as good as the large boats.
When the weather is bad and very turbulent, the waves of the water is always very bad.
This is a bad time for a small boat to be used on such water.
This is because the small boat will not be able to function well when the waves really get worse.
At such point, a casualty might occur like someone falling overboard due to the unstable nature of the boat.
4) Mechanical Faults
Another major cause of fatalities involving small boats is always due to the mechanical faults that exist in the boat engine.
When there is a fault in a boat engine, the engine of the boat will not be able to function well as it should.
Due to this, a casualty might easily set in.
That is why it is always very important to run a maintenance on your boat.
It is at such times that mechanical faults in the boat will be detected if they exist.
This will help bring solutions to the problems easily without it leading to casualties when the boat is used.
5) Lack Of Personal Floatation Devices
As far as boating is concerned, one of the best things you can do is by making sure that you are safe.
Irrespective of the fun you might be having when you are on a boat, a bad safety practice might ruin it all.
This is usually caused when the safety level of the boat is not optimal.
One of the ways of ensuring an optimal level of safety on the boat is to make use of a personal floatation device.
This includes the likes of a life jacket that is worn on the body of passengers of a boat.
A boat operator should also wear a life jacket too.
This will help avoid the major cause of fatalities involving small boats like cases of drowning.
6) Load Imbalance On a Boat
When people are seated on a boat, they have to be seated in a way that does not accumulate too much weight on one side of the boat.
This leads to weight imbalance on the boat.
This is usually noticed with a tilt of the boat to one side.
This is very bad ,and can lead to the development of casualties when you are boating.
Anytime you make use of a boat, the weight distribution on the boat should be balanced.
This will help the boat to move well without casualties on the water.
7) Inexperienced Boat Operator
Another major cause of fatalities involving small boats has to do with the boat being operated by someone that is not experienced.
Operating a boat needs some level of knowledge especially when done on a water body that is very turbulent.
It takes great experience to navigate through turbulent water bodies without casualties.
But if the person that is operating the boat is someone with little to no experience, then safely navigating a rough water will be hard.
In worse cases, this can lead to a serious casualty that might result in situations like drowning.
That is why it is not advisable for someone with limited experience to drive a boat especially on a rough water.
Conclusion
When on a recreational boating, some of the boat that are used in a lot of times are the small boats.
But in using them, drowning which is the major cause of fatalities involving small boats might occur in some of the times.
This is usually due to a bad safety practice.
That is why it is always very important to maintain a good safety practice when you use a boat.
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