Florida Has One Of The Deadliest National Parks In The United States
A visit to a National Park should be full of family fun. But when you’re out in nature, bad things can – and do, happen. Fatal accidents can occur from a fall, or drowning, or even from a motor vehicle crash. In data supplied by Kuhl, they show that your chance of getting injured while visiting a park is low, but it’s never zero. And when you look at the numbers it shows that Florida has one of the safest National Parks, but also one of the deadliest National Parks in America. I’ll let you guess which.
Which is Florida’s deadliest National Park? Is it the Everglades National Park, or Dry Tortugas?
I would have guessed the Everglades, with the alligators and other swamp creatures. But it’s not. It’s the Dry Tortugas.
The Dry Tortugas Park is 7 islands and the coral reefs west of Key West. It’s also the home of 19th-century Fort Jefferson. But before you rush off, the US National Parks Safety index ranks it as the 5th most dangerous in the country.
The deadliest national parks index takes many things into account.
It shows the number of deaths, search and rescue missions, number of park rangers, and distance to the nearest hospital. Factor in the number of visitors and they find that the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona is the most dangerous park to visit. The park averages about 10 deaths a year and a whopping 233 search and rescue missions. One in every 503,455 visitors to that park will die!
Here in Florida, Dry Tortugas is ranked as the fifth most dangerous in the country. And when it comes to fatalities, it does not fare much better. In some ways, worse. Your chance of death in this park is 1 in 184,070. How? The most common cause of death is drowning. Snorkeling, scuba, and water toys are big there.
Accidents happen, but what do you do if you’re in trouble? Well, there’s 2 park rangers and the nearest hospital is miles away. Dry Tortugas, however, has a lot less visitors than some of the other parks, the home to Fort Jefferson only averages just over 69,000 visitors a year.
As for the Everglades National Park? It’s the 23rd safest park in the country. The safest in Florida. One in 1,180,155 visitors will die, and the park averages 30 search and rescue missions a year. More than a million people visit the park each year. So – about one death a year. Finally, I do have one more stat to share with you.
The data shows that 74.1% of fatal accidents happen to male park visitors.
“Hold my beer, watch this” is real.
Florida Has 3 Of The Top 10 Bass Fishing Lakes In The Country
