2025 USCG-AWO Safety Partnership Annual Report

Each year, the National Committee of the Coast Guard-AWO Quality Partnership reviews a report prepared by the Coast Guard Office of Investigations and Casualty Analysis tracking key towing industry safety metrics. This year's report surveys data from 1994 to 2024. For 2024, the projected rate of fatalities for towing vessel crewmembers is 5 per 100,000 full-time employees. While we are waiting on 2024 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the report affirms that between 2021-2023, the towing industry fatality rate trended below not only the BLS fatality rate for transportation sector workers but also the rate for all workers. In addition, the 2024 projected tank barge oil spill rate is 0.25, or one quart, per million gallons transported, with 92.7% of the oil spilled from tank barges attributable to two incidents. The report also shows that from 2023 to 2024, the number of incidents involving towing vessels or barges investigated by the Coast Guard dropped by more than 20%.