Where do most boating accidents occur in Myrtle Beach area? One waterway is the deadliest
The waters in the Myrtle Beach area can be unforgiving.
For boaters, the waterways and inlets can be narrow, tough to navigate and often crowded from the increasing number of people who take their vessels onto the water each year.
Horry County ranks among the top counties in South Carolina for boating fatalities. So far this year, three people have lost their lives in a boating accident, according to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. That is in comparison to three fatalities that were reported for 2022.
The number of boating accidents in Horry County vary from year to year, said Stephen Fastenau, spokesperson with the SCDNR. However, he admits that the number of accidents this year has been higher than normal.
Two areas with the highest number of boating accidents and fatalities are along the Intracoastal Waterway in the Little River and Myrtle Beach areas.
While the Little River area has a high number of boating accidents that occur each year, it does not have the highest or is the deadliest in Horry County based on data from the last five years by the U.S. Coast Guard.
The highest number of deaths and accidents have occurred on the Intracoastal Waterway in the Myrtle Beach area, according to Coast Guard numbers from 2018 to 2022.
There were 63 boating accidents and five deaths in that area during that time period. There were 24 accidents and one death along the ICW in the Little River area.
Ultimately, Fastenau says the increase in boating accidents can be attributed to the number of vessels and boaters going up as the population and the amount of people visiting grows in Horry County.
“The number of registered boats goes up every year, but the size of the water stays the same,” Fastenau said.
Bodies of water where accidents occurred
Here is a list of the number boating accidents and deaths that have occurred in Horry and Georgetown counties from 2018 to 2022, according to Coast Guard numbers:
ICW/Myrtle Beach area: 63 accidents, five deaths
ICW/Little River area: 24 accidents, one death
Murrells Inlet: 11 accidents, two deaths
Little Pee Dee River: 10 accident, two deaths
Waccamaw River: 23 accidents, two deaths
Waccamaw River, which is 140 miles long and flows from North Carolina to Winyah Bay in Georgetown, is among the area bodies of water listed, as is the Little Pee Dee River, which flows between Horry and Marion counties. However, the Coast Guard information doesn’t specifically list where the accidents took place on those bodies of water.
This year in Horry County the SCDNR has responded to four accidents each on the ICW/Myrtle Beach and Little Pee Dee River, three on the ICW/Little River and one in the Atlantic Ocean, Fastenau said. Three of those were fatalities.
As for the high number of accidents on the Intracoastal Waterway, Fastenau described the waterway as narrow, which lends itself to dense traffic. It’s an area that has a lot of visitors, who may be less experienced boat operators, he said.
Fastenau said some of the top things that lend to a boating accident is the failure to keep proper lookout, not maintaining a correct speed and wearing a life jacket.
The vast majority of deaths occur because a person wasn’t wearing a life jacket, not the trauma of the accident, Fastenau said. “If they would have been wearing life jackets, they would have had a chance,” he said.
11-year-old among those who’ve died this year
The most recent boating fatality involved an 11-year-old Massachusetts girl who was killed July 19 when she was thrown overboard from a boat traveling on the Intracoastal Waterway in Little River.
Olivia Knighton was one of nine people thrown overboard when the 23-foot boat was rocked by a large wake created by another boat, according to the SCDNR. The boat was carrying 12 people. Knighton died after being struck by a propeller, officials said.
The Coast Guard is leading the investigation into the accident.
On June 19, a state dive team recovered the body of Jacob Williams, 24, of Myrtle Beach, hours after he was reported missing.
Williams was thrown from a boat after it struck a dock on the Intracoastal Waterway in the Socastee area. Another Myrtle Beach man, Matthew Brown, 29, was arrested in the boating death, charged with felony boating under the influence and obstruction of justice.
In January, 22-year-old Tyler Doyle went missing after his 16-foot jon boat sank at the Little River jetties.
Doyle, of Loris, had been duck hunting with a friend on Jan. 26 when his boat began to take on water. A multi-agency search for Doyle was launched, headed by the SCDNR. Doyle’s waders and wallet were found off the North Carolina coast on Jan. 31, however, he still remains missing.
Fastenau said Doyle’s accident has been declared a boating death although the SCDNR is still “doing its diligence” in finding him.
The SCDNR ruled in February that there was no foul play suspected in the case. The department said in an earlier release that phone records, along with the data location information, witness interviews, a boat inspection and recovered items indicate this to be a boating/hunting accident, and no foul play is suspected.
This story was originally published August 19, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
