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Column: Drowning statistics stress importance of life-jackets

Great Outdoors by James Murray
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Part two of a two part series

In the process of researching material for a column on water safety and the need to wear a life-jacket or PFD, I have come across a lot of disturbing and distressing facts regarding drownings and near-fatal water related incidents.

According to statistics on the websites of Boating Canada and the Canadian Lifesaving Society, aquatic activities, where the victim intended to be on or in the water, but something went wrong, were the most frequent type of activity where drowning deaths occurred. An average of 121 people drowned each year while engaged in an aquatic activity.

Despite the overall decrease in the number of water-related fatality deaths in Canada, the number and proportion of aquatic-activity drowning deaths increased, up from an average of 114 per year.

The next most common type of activity was boating. An average of 111 people drowned each year while engaging in powered or non-powered boating. After boating and aquatic activities, unintended water entry (such as an unexpected fall into water) during a non-aquatic activity accounted for the next greatest proportion of incidents. An average of 88 people drowned each year after falling into water.

The highest water-related fatality rates were found among seniors aged 65 and older (1.8 per 100,000) and young adults aged 20 to 34 (1.5 per 100,000). The highest frequency of drowning occurred among 20 to 24-year-olds and 55 to 59-year-olds; every year, an average of 41 water-related fatalities occurred in each of these age groups. The lowest drowning rates were found among young people 5 to 14 (0.4 per 100,000).

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Powerboats or canoes are the crafts most often involved in boating-related drowning fatalities. An average of 60 boating-related deaths (54 per cent) occurred each year. Among these, small powerboats less than 5.5 metres long were more commonly involved in drowning fatalities than large powerboats or personal water- craft (3 per cent). After powerboats, canoes were the next most common type of vessel involved in boating incidents; each year, an average of 23 people drowned while canoeing. In boating-related deaths for which personal flotation device (PFD) information was available, 84 per cent of those who drowned were not wearing one at the time of the incident, and an additional 5 per cent were not wearing one properly. Of those known not to be wearing a PFD or life-jacket, at least 28 per cent had a life-jacket present in the boat but were unable to put it on during the incident.

In 88 per cent of drowning deaths in children, they were unsupervised or the supervisor was distracted. Alcohol consumption was a factor in 36 per cent of boating-related fatalities.

The most common types of boating incidents that led to drowning were capsizing and falling or being thrown overboard.

Natural bodies of water continue to see the majority of drowning deaths in Canada. Almost three-quarters (72 per cent) of water-related fatalities occurred in lakes and ponds.

These are all both alarming and disturbing statistics, and the most distressing fact related to almost all of them is that in most incidents, drowning fatalities could have been prevented if the people involved had been wearing a life-jacket or PDF.

Canadian boating regulations state that a boat, “must be equipped with an approved life-jacket or PFD of appropriate size for each person on board.”

However, like I said in last week’s column, having life-jackets stowed away somewhere on board may technically comply with boating regulations, but being technically in compliance is of little value when you suddenly need to get them out and put them on everyone on board under less than ideal conditions.

Use a bit of common sense and go one better than simple compliance; take control of both your vessel and the situation, and insist that everyone on board wear their lifejacket or PFD.

The way I see it, life-jackets only have to work once.


@SalmonArm
newsroom@saobserver.net

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