Report: 21% of Pennsylvania's boating fatalities linked to alcohol or drugs

A new Coast Guard report shows that drugs or alcohol played a role in more than 100 of the 633 boating fatalities across the country last year.

The statistics were similar in Pennsylvania, with three of the 14 boating-related fatalities in 2018 attributed to alcohol or drug impairment.

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission released the study to urge boaters, especially boat operators, to stay sober for the holiday weekend when out on the water.

“Waterways conservation officers will be patrolling rivers and lakes across the commonwealth checking for required safety equipment and signs of impaired boating,” Col. Corey Britcher, director of the commission’s Bureau of Law Enforcement, in a news release.

While 21% of boating fatalities were drug- or alcohol-related in Pennsylvania, 92% of boat operators involved had not taken a boating safety course and 79% of victims were not wearing life jackets, according to a report of 2018 accidents by the Coast Guard.

This year, there have been seven boating-related fatalities in Pennsylvania, according to the Coast Guard.

Alcohol use is suspected in one of the cases. Six of the victims were not wearing a life jacket, while the body of one victim has not yet been recovered. Six of the victims had either not taken, or it is unknown if they had taken, a formal boating education safety course.

2 A-K Valley deaths last year, 1 this year

Two of the 2018 boating fatalities occurred last August in the Alle-Kiski Valley on the Allegheny River.

• Armstrong County: A Ligonier man died after he was thrown from a race boat he was driving in Gilpin as he was trying to pass another vessel and was hit by a wake. The victim was wearing a life jacket and was an experienced boat operator but had not taken a formal boating safety course.

• Allegheny County: A Monroeville man died as a result of jumping overboard from a 17-foot open motorboat while fishing in the Allegheny River near Plum. Someone threw him a personal flotation device, which the victim grabbed and tried to swim ashore.

Officials say the victim then stopped for some reason and let go of the flotation device and disappeared. He had not taken a formal boating safety course.

So far this year, there has been one fatality on the Allegheny River reported by the Coast Guard. On Aug. 8, a 76-year-old man died after falling overboard from a pontoon boat in Harmar. The victim was not wearing a life jacket and was said to not know how to swim. No alcohol or unprescribed drug use was suspected. The incident is under investigation.