In case I wasn't clear in my earlier post on the subject, most PWCs have no steering control when the operator releases the throttle because the steering is provided by thrust vectoring. With no thrust to vector, there's no steering. This is a common factor in PWC accidents since the first thing most folks do when faced with an imminent collision is try to slow down rather than steer hard and get hard on the gas to avoid the collision.
I just read an article about PWCs in the latest issue of BoatUS. Many new PWCs come with off-throttle steering now and they predicted that in 2007 all new PWCs would come with that feature. Should really cut down on accidents. The newest PWCs are also very quiet and statistically, are being purchased by a more mature crowd. The article also states that in Florida, PWC accidents have been on a steady decline from 451 accidents in 1997 to 169 accidents in 2004. Love to hear how this meshes with David Jenkin's numbers. Oh wait, he didn't publish any hard numbers, only percentages... Have to wonder if he used percentages because the actual number of accidents is declining. Still like the see the PWC stats for NH though. That's the real issue here
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