Is distracted boating as hazardous as distracted driving?

Operating a boat safely on the water is hard enough. Keeping a sharp lookout for other boats or dangerous objects floating in the water requires focus and concentration. But just like their landlubber counterparts, boat drivers are increasingly using cell phones and other electronic devices while operating their vessels.

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And like distracted driving on land, it's difficult to gauge exactly how many people engage in distracted boating. But we do know that cell phones are considered a possible cause in a pair of recent maritime accidents involving U.S. Coast Guard  vessels.

In a boating accident that occurred in San Diego last year, an eight-year-old boy was killed when his family's pleasure boat was struck by a Coast Guard vessel. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, Coast Guard crew members in that accident were texting or talking on cell phones at the time of the crash.

Also last year, a Coast Guard boat crashed into a passenger vessel in the harbor in Charleston, South Carolina, injuring six people. Crew members were using cell phones at the time of that crash, as well. 

Both accidents are still under investigation and NTSB has not said the crews' use of cell phones caused or contributed to them. Nevertheless, in July the Coast Guard issued guidance to its personnel prohibiting the use of wireless phones by operators of Coast Guard boats and restricting their use by other crew members.

NTSB wants the Coast Guard to go further and has asked the service to (PDF download) issue a safety advisory to the entire maritime industry warning of the use of electronic communications devices such as cell phones, smart phones and personal data assistants while operating a vessel. NTSB does not have the authority to issue such advisories to the maritime industry.

"The use of wireless communications devices while operating vehicles in any mode of transportation poses an unacceptable distraction," NTSB Chairman Debbie Hersman recently told USAToday in an article about distracted boating. "Lives are being unnecessarily put at risk and lost."

—Bob Williams