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Fatalities
In 2005 and 2006, there were 88 reported fatalities on Australian Waters. A breakdown of these is shown below:
|
2005 |
2006 |
2005-2006 Total |
Fatalities |
43 |
45 |
88 |
Fatal Incidents |
39 |
39 |
78 |
The above table shows that most fatal incidents involved only one fatality.
Turning to the circumstances surrounding fatalities, a breakdown by type of incident will show what actually happened. Below is a graph of the top 10 incident types in fatalities in 2005 and 2006:
The most common type of incident in fatalities was a person falling overboard, which represented 33% of all fatalities. This was followed by a vessel capsizing (22% of all fatalities) and collision of vessels/swamping (9% of all fatalities). What this clearly shows is that most fatalities occur from people ending up in the water. Taken together, incidents where a person is likely to end up in the water represent 70% of all fatalities. This may be higher as it does not take into account those incidents where, for example, two vessels collided and then sank.
Though the cause of death is not recorded, Coroners records show that the vast majority of fatalities occur from drowning or hyperthermia. This finding is consistent with the nature of the incidents, that is, people who end up in the water are likely to die from drowning or hyperthermia.
Turning to contributing factors in fatalities, the wind/sea state is the largest contributing factor, making up 15% of all contributing factors recorded in fatalities. This is followed by error of judgement (13%) and alcohol or drugs (9%). The top 10 contributing factors in fatalities are displayed below:
Environmental factors represent 33% of all contributing factors in fatalities. This compares with a figure of 31% for all incidents, so environmental factors are slightly over-represented in fatalities. Human factors and material factors account for 49% and 18% respectively of all contributing factors in fatalities.
Alcohol or drugs in particular are over-represented in fatalities. While alcohol or drugs is a factor in just 1% of all incidents, in fatalities it represents 9% of all factors. This suggest that exposure to alcohol or drugs can increase the likelihood of a fatality occurring, though the large gap could be partly explained by better reporting and measurement mechanisms when fatalities occur.
