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Nearly two-thirds of the earth's surface is covered by water. Future transportation considerations should include the best utilization of water transportation for commercial and recreational purposes. Water transportation has evolved from hand carved canoes to modern mega yachts. During the last few decades, many variations on the basic boats have become present in the marketplace. Included are hovercraft, jet-driven craft and hydrofoil oriented watercraft.

Accidents associated with recreational boating in the United States result in more than 800 fatalities annually. The analysis and reconstruction of these accidents is a complex process due to many non-reproducible factors uniquely associated with water transportation. This paper reports the results of research regarding recreational boating accident patterns and factors. The approaches and techniques used for reconstruction purposes are presented. Marine accident reconstruction and investigation draws from the techniques typically utilized in other areas of transportation equipment. To date, a limited amount of information concerning marine accident reconstruction/analysis exists. This paper is an overview of the various factors, considerations, and special techniques which may be useful in marine (recreational) accident analysis.

Accidents and injuries associated with the use of utility oriented equipment, by both commercial and consumer users, involve a broad range of factors. Analysis of these factors and their role in the risk of those activities can be useful to develop effective risk reduction strategies. Generally, these can be identified as mechanism (equipment), human (operator), and environmental factors. This paper briefly looks at the human factors and the human/environmental aspects of these systems. The human/environmental aspects deal with both the mechanical operating, and chemical related environments. Both are associated with certain types of risk.