With four dead and 13 hunting-related shooting incidents, the State Department of Environmental Conservation said March 6 that the 2016 New York hunting season was the safest since DEC began compiling hunting-related shooting statistics in 1958. "Hunting is a proud tradition in New York State that continues to be safely enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of residents and visitors each year," DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said. "The trend of declining hunting accidents is proof that our Sportsman Education Program is working thanks, in large part, to the efforts of the 3,000 volunteer instructors that teach our hunter safety courses every year." The past five-year average is down to 3.5 shooting incidents per 100,000 hunters, compared to 19 per 100,000 in the 1960s, according to the DEC.