what type of boating emergency causes the most fatalities
That said, the type of boat you have determines whether collisions or overboard situations are more deadly. On smaller boats like runabouts and PWCs, collision causes more fatalities than overboard situations (Table 1), but both are important. If you get into a collision on a small boat, there is very little in the way of boat structure to protect you from injury â even less on a PWC.
Capsizes have caused more boating deaths than any other type of accident. These are among the commonest capsizing factors: Gross overloading, or poor distribution of load. Broaching when running with a following sea. This is made more likely by the boat not having the bow trimmed up.