For Florida boaters, recent summers have meant more crowds and more crashes.

Peaking every year from May through July, boating traffic and accidents in the state surged after the coronavirus pandemic, according to a Tampa Bay Times analysis of data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The April crash involving prominent St. Petersburg businessperson Jeff Knight cast a spotlight on boating safety in and beyond Tampa Bay when the vessel he was operating collided with the Clearwater Ferry, killing one and injuring several others.

As Florida’s boating population grows, so does its potential for safety issues, experts say. The state has more than a million registered vessels — about 7% more than in 2019 and roughly 10% of all boats in the U.S.

“I grew up here, on the waterways pretty much my whole life. It has exploded,” said Officer Scott Pierce, who has served with the St. Petersburg Police Department for 18 years — three of which have been spent on the agency’s Marine Unit. “Boat ownership has gone through the roof.”

Experts warn that untrained beginners and holiday drinking exacerbate the risk.

In 2019, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recorded 727 boating incidents, including collisions, ejections, capsizing cases and more.

A year later, amid the coronavirus pandemic, the number reached 839, a 15% jump.

“More people — and less experienced people — were taking to the water,” said Scott Szczepaniak, recreational boating specialist for the Coast Guard’s seventh district, including Florida.

Lt. Nick Korade, of the wildlife commission’s Boating and Waterways Section, said roughly 20,000 more boater ID cards were issued in 2020 than the year prior — indicating a huge influx in boaters.

The cards are a requirement for boaters born after January 1988 who are operating a vessel with 10 or more horsepower. They certify that the operator has completed a safety training course.

As new boaters became more experienced, Korade said, the number of incidents has come down some.

Summer accident rates have remained elevated, though. During the peak season of May through July, there were 10% more incidents in 2024 than before the pandemic. In total, there were 690 crashes last year, resulting in nearly 80 deaths.

One man crashed into a barge near the Howard Frankland Bridge on an early morning in July.

A 15-year-old boy died in Shore Acres when the driver, another teen, slammed into a dock and threw them both overboard.

A man on a fishing trip died near Dunedin when he was ejected and caught his arm in the boat’s propeller.

Accidents are most common near Miami and the Florida Keys. Miami-Dade and Monroe counties each logged more than 70 incidents in 2024, compared to 42 in Pinellas. Lakes in Central Florida that allow power boating also see significant numbers.

Insurance companies have increased their scrutiny of policies in Florida, said Insurance Information Institute spokesperson Mark Friedlander, due to both hurricane-related losses and the increase in accidents.

Most crashes come from operator errors like speeding, said Armin Cate, a Coast Guard veteran based in Miami who works as a private contractor investigating crashes for insurance companies.

“People are operating boats at speeds that even an experienced offshore racer would have trouble with,” he said.

Restricted area violations, which include speeding, also spiked during the pandemic. In 2021, Pinellas County had one of the highest jumps of any county, increasing by more than 60% in one year. These violations include boating in vessel-exclusion zones and breaking other local rules.

Alcohol often plays a role, too.

In Pinellas County, cases of boating under the influence more than tripled in 2022 and continued growing the following year, according to court data.

“You have more people on the water, which means you’re gonna have more people doing things they’re not supposed to be doing,” said Pierce, with the St. Petersburg police. Police presence is up, too, he said.

Both boating under the influence charges and accidents are more frequent around the holidays or big events, the Times analysis found. In Hillsborough County since 2019, an average of eight BUI cases are filed the day of the Gasparilla Pirate Invasion, court data shows. For any other Saturday, the average is less than one.

The pattern is especially stark around Independence Day. In 2024, the state averaged about nine BUI cases each week, but the week of July Fourth, there were 51. Seven were in Pinellas County, which was tied for the most in the state with Okaloosa, home to Choctawhatchee Bay and the Santa Rosa Sound, near Destin.

This year, a rainy weekend likely limited Fourth of July accidents. The wildlife commission reported nine crashes and 12 other incidents in Florida’s southwest region over the holiday weekend.

While some training programs offer hands-on training on the water, no state requires any kind of skills test for boating safety, like that to operate a car. Several of the wildlife commission’s approved courses can be completed online.

Some safety enthusiasts find this lacking.

“Would you give your kids a key to a car after watching a video?” said Vickie Waller, founder and CEO of SaferBoater, a boating education program that focuses on on-the-water training.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, nearly 70% of fatal accidents across the country involve vessels whose operators haven’t received formal safety training.

Waller and Cate, the insurance investigator, created a program called Trusted Boater that centralizes information from training schools for insurance companies and state agencies to reference. They said they are in talks with state agencies and insurers to see how it can be implemented.

“There’s a lot of ‘status quo’ kind of mentality in this industry,” Waller said. “But the status quo isn’t working, so things have to change.”

Korade, with the wildlife commission, noted the agency is part of a pilot program with the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators, a national nonprofit, to roll out an optional safety course that includes on-the-water practice. Individuals who complete it receive a special boater safety education ID card that recognizes their enhanced training.

Earlier this month, two major pieces of boater safety legislation went into effect in Florida.

Under the Boater Freedom Act, the wildlife commission and other law enforcement are no longer allowed to stop or board a vessel without probable cause, including for random safety inspections.

Wildlife commission officials have said they don’t expect major impacts from the law. But some critics worry it limits the commission’s ability to enforce fishing rules and safety regulations.

Alan S. Richard, a former captain for the commission and a maritime law adjunct professor at Florida State University, called the law “an abomination.”

“They have attempted to, and perhaps succeeded in, setting back boating safety enforcement,” Richard said.

Korade said officers will continue to observe and address violations when they see them.

Safety advocates praised another new measure, called “Lucy’s Law” after a teenage passenger who died in a 2022 crash, which raises penalties for certain boating violations. Leaving the scene of a boat crash involving a death, for example, became a first-degree felony, carrying up to 30 years in prison. A BUI manslaughter conviction carries a minimum of four years.

Times staff writer Jack Prator contributed to this report.
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