Expert Witness Blog
In High-Speed Fun with High-Speed Defects, personal watercraft expert witness Dr. Craig Good, Collision Analysis, Inc., writes:
Personal watercraft are vessels operated by a person positioned on the craft. They are less than 4 m in length and use an internal combustion engine to power a water pump or jet as the vessel’s primary source of propulsion. The jet exits the rear of the craft from a steerable nozzle….
In 1998, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a much-anticipated safety study of PWCs. This study found that they comprise only 7.4% of all registered recreational boats; yet, 51% of all boating accidents involved PWCs, and 41% of all boating injuries involved PWCs.