Statistics on water traffic accidents
The statistics on water traffic accidents include merchant shipping and recreational boating accidents in Finland’s territorial waters and nearby international waters. The statistics also include accidents that Finnish vessels have been involved in abroad that Traficom has been informed of. The data are updated once a year. The information is produced by the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom.
According to statistics, 34 persons died in recreational boating accidents in 2023. This is 7 persons more than in the same period of 2022.
STATISTICS ON WATER TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS ARE COMPILED BY SEVERAL OPERATORS
Operators in the water traffic safety sector compile statistics on their own operations. Some of these statistics touch on water traffic accidents. Statistics on water traffic safety are produced by e.g. the Finnish Border Guard, the Finnish Lifeboat Institution and Rescue Services (Pelastustoimi). The Finnish Border Guard compiles statistics on its own sea rescue operations, the Finnish Lifeboat Institution on the operations of its local associations and Rescue Services on its own rescue operations. In addition, the Finnish Swimming Teaching and Lifesaving Federation compiles statistics on drowning accidents based on media coverage. One of the categories is drownings in boating accidents. Previously, there have not been statistics that focus only on water traffic and combine the data collected by the most significant operators.
Note! From 2021 onwards, statistics on water traffic accidents have only been published in Traficom’s statistics database service.