See also Steep Powered Paragliding on Spirals and Wingovers.

Staying alive while paramotoring has proven quite simple: don't do the things listed here. Overall, the risk can be made extremely small.

Most accidents happen for predictable and preventable causes. Avoid them. Water and turbulence are the bugaboos in that order. If water landing is a possibility, carry floatation (like Agama). If you fly where turbulence is a possibility, carry a reserve AND KNOW HOW TO USE IT! But don't think that carrying a reserve makes turbulence safe -- most turbulence-related fatalities happened below safe deployment height. All the turbulence related fatalities happened in air the pilot knew was likely to be turbulent. One more thing: wear a helmet, that would have prevented at least one fatality.

We don't address the largest cause of serious injuries: prop strikes. That's because, so far, they have proven survivable albeit with sometimes permanent disability.

Training

Yes, I'm afraid the training phase carries elevated risk though nothing as dramatic as self training. We don't always hear of the fatalities that relate to truck towing--when some bubba gets a paraglider on eBay, ties himself to a truck and tells his buddy to punch it. That rarely goes well.

Much of my drive to improve training methods (i.e. use of the USPPA syllabus) stems from this sad fact. We can never eliminate the risk, but some of these can easily be avoided by changing common practice.

1996, New York, Solo Student with less than 5 flights is practicing flying. The instructor was working with at least two students at the time when he noticed one of them spinning from several hundred feet. It was late morning with probably level 2 or 3 level turbulence. He spun into trees then fell to his death. Probable cause: excessive brake that caused the glider to spin. Turbulence alone doesn't cause spins—heavy braking does.

2006, Student under tow using a turn-around pulley. Gets off line. Instructor commands a turn while letting off the tow pull but it was too late. The student locked out and hit hard.

Steep Maneuvering

1996, France, Experienced pilot with probably several hundred flights.
  Pilot suffered a collapse and spin without enough altitude to recover. He was on a competition wing which aggravates matters since its long, skinny wings are more likely to fold up and more finicky in the recovery.

2001, Toledo, Ohio, Experienced pilot with several hundred flights.
  Wally Shilts was known to do frequently steep maneuvering and, on one particularly aggressive wing over, he went loose on the lines then didn't have enough altitude to complete the recovery. He ended up hitting the ground. He was flying mid-day so its likely that turbulence could have been a factor.

2010, Galveston, Texas, Experienced pilot doing steep spirals.
  Mike Larronde liked steep, but not usually nose-over (vertical), spirals with a low recovery. While doing this with a different wing than normal, he got into a steeper-than-normal and never recovered, hitting the water with fatal forces. He had no reserve and was not wearing a helmet. We can't say whether the reserve or helmet had anything to do with its outcome. Certainly a reserve would need to be deployed high enough to act.

Table below originally compiled by Mike Nowland, updated by Jeff Goin.

Accidents list causal factors in the order of relevance. For example, a motor failure may be the primary causal factor but, if it caused a fatal accident there was also a handling error. A PPG is so slow that any normal landing speed will almost never cause fatal injuries. Same is true with turbulence. It's possible that a pilot could be hit with mother nature's fury without warning, but darned unlikely--usually the air was known to be bumpy.

Code	Causal Factor		Skill Level
SM Wa T Ha Mid Col O MF	Steep Maneuvering Water Turbulence Handling Error Midair Collision (wires, trees, etc.) Other Motor Failure		StSup St PPG1 PPG2 PPG3 I	Student, supervised by Instructor Student, not being supervised Learning but with at least 2 unassisted flights. Fairly skilled and at least 25 unassisted flights. Highly skilled and at least 100 unassisted flights. Skill varies but usually is high PPG2 or PPG3.

Name	Location	Cause	Pri Cause	Sec Cause	Year
Unknown	NY	Spin	Ha	T	1996
Didier Plisson	France	Low collapse and spin on prototype in competition	Ha		1996
Unknown	Portugal	Panic jump over ocean, being blown offshore	W	Ha	1999
Jan Rowicki	Illinois	Low turn near buildings, mech turbulence	Ha	T	2000
Dave Robicaux	Florida	Low acro, water	Ha	W	2001
Unknown	Grottemmare, Italy	Water, low, engine out (Bob Olejar PPC list)	Wa		2001
Dave Flood	California	Suicide	O		2002
Wayne Hartshorn	Kentucky	Hit tree first flight, ok but unstrapped and fell	Col		2002
JDA Officer	Japan	Water	Wa		2002
Wally Shilts	Ohio	Low acro	Ha		2003
Hidemi Uemura	Japan	Water	Wa		2004
Unknown	Quebec	Student kept hands in brakes while reaching down for seat.	Ha		2004
John Burnworth	North Carolina	Takeoff from residental street, hit wires	Col		2005
Joe Petrosian	Ensenada, Mexico	Low collapse, probably in turbulence	T	H	2005
Del Skaret	Leiper's Fork, TN	Engine out, stall? On launch.  Self-trained.	Ha		2006
Gerald B. Lutz	Perrysburg, OH	Student under radio control of an instructor; tow launch	Ha		2006
Carlos Cotoruelo ('Coto')	France	Unknown, low flying into headwind	T		2006
Col. Barton George	Albuquerque, NM	Mid-air collision, other pilot distracted, one high, one low,	Mid		2006
Sergio Villamizar	Wellington, FL	Unknown, turbulence-related? Trike	Wa	T	2006
Julius Gee	UK	Low level aerobatics (more here)	Ha		2007
Mike Rish	Indiana	Flew into water, got out of harness, drowned swimming to shore Kim Young Min owner of Korean paramotor manufacturer N-Zin wing was tragically killed during a speed race in Thailand. Initial reports suggest that his brake handle was sucked into the prop causing his wing to enter an unrecoverable spiral.	Wa		2007
Kim Young Min, owner of paramotor maker N-Zing	Thailand	killed during a "speed race" (cross country) in Thailand. Initial reports suggest that his brake handle was sucked into the prop causing his wing to enter an unrecoverable spiral.	O		2007
Kevin Rymer Craig	UK	High level acro w/ structural failure of paramotor (more here)	MF	Ha	2008
Martin Maxwell	Monument Valley, AZ	Flew towards mesa with distant thunderstorm. Trike. (more here)	T	Ha	2008
Unknown	Florida	Trike launch, went into water, drowned	Wa		2008
Tim Wyeth	UK	Turbulence at low level (more here.)	T		2009
Unknown	Florida	Foot launched Tandem, couldn't reach brake toggle, went into water, pilot drowned, wife survived (Not USPPA rated, don't know if certified).	Wa		2009
Bill Crosby	Arizona	Caught tree limb on wheel of trike while maneuvering steeply (more here).	Col	SM	2009
Andrew Azarskova	IL	Extended his launch run onto an adjoining road and got hit by a truck. (added 6/14/2010)	O		2010
Mike Larronde	TX	Steep Spiral went nose over (vertical) and hit the water with no obvious recovery effort. (added 9/17/2010)	O		2010
Wojtek Hewig	Germany	Induced collapse for purpose of testing wing. Complications caused a cravat and resulting steep spiral. He had a reserve but did not deploy it for unknown reasons. (added 11/30/2010)	SM	O	2010
Unknown	TX	Student on trike flying DHV 1-2 wing under instruction. Got into an oscillation. Instructor radioed hands up but student continued inputs until impact (added 11/30/2010)	Ha StSup	O	2011