Deadly Preseason

Boating

For most Western Washington boaters, last weekend’s “Opening Day” parade in Seattle triggered a time of fun, recreation and adventure. But boating also carries the potential for tragedy, and Washington is on a troubling pace for 1997.

“We’ve had nine deaths before the boating season even kicked off,” said Dolph Diemont, Coast Guard boating-safety specialist.

The ninth fatality occurred last weekend, on Sunday, when Corina Sofranko, 28, of Clark County, was swept under a logjam on the Toutle River near Mount St. Helens. She was on a commercial raft when it overturned.

The nine recreational-boating fatalities compare with five at this point last year but don’t include three Coast Guardsmen killed while trying to rescue a couple in a sailboat.

Last year’s 24 deaths in Washington represent a sharp one-year drop, but the 37 in 1995 was the highest toll in 10 years.

More than 50 percent of boating fatalities involve alcohol, and nearly 90 percent of boating-accident victims wear no flotation device, according to Coast Guard statistics.