NASBLA Public Library

Safe States Alliance and the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA), in partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard, is excited to announce the release of new recommendations for improving boat occupant injury surveillance.

The Recreational Boat Occupant Injury Surveillance Roundtable report summarizes discussions between experts in public health injury prevention and boating safety. The new report outlines nine recommendations for improving boat occupant injury surveillance:

1. Create, increase, and maintain multidisciplinary collaborations between public health, health care, injury prevention and boating professionals.
2. Create consistent terms and definitions across agencies and databases.
3. Improve and expand data elements captured.
4. Improve data collection processes and strategies within BARD.
5. Improve and expand data accessibility to all sources of boat injury surveillance data.
6. Link and integrate existing boating-related injury data sources.
7. Utilize expanded data analyses and methodologies with existing data.
8. Investigate sources of sustainable funding for recreational boating surveillance.
9. Work toward long-term social, political, and cultural change.

The recommendations align with previous calls to address issues in recreational boat occupant injury surveillance by galvanizing collaborative efforts between boating and public health injury prevention communities. The Recreational Boat Occupant Injury Surveillance Roundtable is the first-tier of a three-tiered approach to improve boat occupant injury surveillance practices nationally to support the United States Coast Guard (USCG) in carrying out its National Recreational Boating Safety Program 2017-2021 Strategic Plan.
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