swimmers

OK, more summer stuff… Check Out The Appalling Drowning Statistics I didn’t choose this topic because it’s pleasant but because it’s informative (you know me!) I give this knowledge most years, in the hope it will one day save a life. Accidental death is a relatively rare form of demise, though proportionately higher in younger people, since they don’t get the disease spectrum of older folks. Drowning is one of the commoner accidental deaths, after road traffic accidents, of course. Did you know that in cold Northern waters (these figures are from the UK and would apply to the north Atlantic and north Pacific, but not necessarily the Caribbean) 55% of drownings occur within 10 feet of safety? That’s surprising. Also 66% of victims are good swimmers. How can that be? It tells us that people in the water can get into difficulty within seconds and rapidly become helpless. Typically, when a victim realizes that they cannot keep their head above water, they tend to panic. This leads to the classic “surface struggle”, where they flounder and thrash in the upright posture, out of control.

OK, more summer stuff… Check Out The Appalling Drowning Statistics I didn’t choose this topic because it’s pleasant but because it’s informative (you know me!) I give this knowledge most years, in the hope it will one day save a life. Accidental death is a relatively rare form of demise, though proportionately higher in younger people, since they don’t get the disease spectrum of older folks. Drowning is one of the commoner accidental deaths, after road traffic accidents, of course. Did you know that in cold Northern waters (these figures are from the UK and would apply to the north Atlantic and north Pacific, but not necessarily the Caribbean) 55% of drownings occur within 10 feet of safety? That’s surprising. Also 66% of victims are good swimmers. How can that be? It tells us that people in the water can get into difficulty within seconds and rapidly become helpless. Typically, when a victim realizes that they cannot keep their head above water, they tend to panic. This leads to the classic “surface struggle”, where they flounder and thrash in the upright posture, out of control.