Lucas welcomes slight drop in Gold Coast marine incidents

Gold Coast boaties have lifted their game with a slight drop in marine incidents on the region’s waterways last year.

Minister for Transport and Main Roads Paul Lucas said there were 89 incidents in the Gold Coast maritime region in 2006, down slightly from 92 the previous year.

These incidents resulted in one fatality and 12 serious injuries. There were two fatalities and 14 serious injuries in 2005.

“While the overall number of incidents on the Gold Coast decreased, it was also good to see a drop in the number of serious incidents from 16 in 2005 down to 11 last year,” Mr Lucas said.

“Maritime Safety Queensland believes that in general people using vessels on our waterways are more safety conscious and are by and large doing the right thing.

“In Queensland, almost one in every 15 people aged 15 years and older owns a boat, and incredibly around one in every five people in the same age group holds some form of marine licence.

"We also passed the 200,000 mark for registered recreational vessels in January 2006 and if current growth rates continue we’ll beat NSW as the biggest boat owning state in the next year or so," Mr Lucas said.

"The Gold Coast is a particularly popular spot for boating and there is ever increasing pressure from growing numbers of waterways users, particularly larger vessels.

"Given these factors, the boating public in the region have not had a bad year in terms of their safety record.

“But there’s always room for improvement.”

While a very small region in terms of area, the Gold Coast region is home to more than 30,000 registered vessels, 97 per cent of which are recreational. The region also boasts significant interstate and international visiting vessel numbers all year round.

With the diversity and volume of vessel traffic in the Gold Coast region it is not surprising collision incidents made up 40.5 per cent of all the reported incidents in the region in 2006. Collisions with other vessels accounted for 30.3 per cent of the region’s reported incidents.

Recreational speedboats (24) were the most commonly involved type of vessel in reported incidents. Recreational motorboats, commercial passenger vessels and commercial speedboats each recorded 14 vessels involved in marine incidents in 2006.

There were also 13 recreational jet skis involved in reported marine incidents in the Gold Coast region for the year.

Mr Lucas said the report emphasised the need for people to be ‘boat smart.’

“Before you hit the waterways make sure your boat and safety equipment is in good working order,” Mr Lucas said.

“And remember the basics – look out for other boats, keep to the speed limit and don’t drink and operate a vessel.”

The 2006 Marine Incidents Report is available online at Maritime Safety Queensland's web site at www.msq.qld.gov.au.

Media inquiries: Robert Hoge 3237 1942