Let's Be Safe Out There: Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning
The annual warning: drowning is a big danger for little kids (and drunk adults)
This is my annual Memorial Day practice: to remind people about water safety.
To be sure, that’s not what Memorial Day is about (and it’s been super-cold around here lately), but death is kind of my bag, as well as trying to prevent early death.
Drowning prevention: learn to swim and be aware
Here is the video I have been using for years to raise awareness:
One of the biggest issues around drowning, at least for teens and adults, is being able to swim.
This crops up in New York a lot, and some is just having access to pools, as natural water around here is not that swimmable. The Atlantic Ocean is cold as hell up here, and the lakes and ponds aren’t much better for most of the year. Many of the people from NYC never really learn to swim.
CDC: Preventing Drowning
Key points (from the CDC — and I also agree with these key points)
More children ages 1–4 die from drowning than any other cause of death.
Drowning happens in seconds and is often silent.
Drowning can happen to anyone, any time there is access to water.
As the CDC link notes, drowning is a top cause of death for toddlers. I wrote about that point in 2022:
Drowning is an even bigger issue (of late) than motor vehicle accidents for children age 1-4 in the U.S., and has been for years… mainly due to improved vehicle safety.
To give summary results, knowing that some of the drowning deaths for 2024 are not yet reported (as external causes of death are censored from the data set for 6 months for investigation purposes):
Accidental causes of death rate trends are always difficult. They don’t give nice, smooth patterns, as do natural causes of death (excepting epidemics/pandemics).
I am concerned about this increasing drowning death rates of seniors. Are people getting boats in retirement and not wearing floatation devices?
I’m sorry, but even if you can swim, if you get ejected from a boat in an accident, you can hit your head, yadda yadda.
In terms of total numbers, there are about 4,000 accidental drownings per year for all ages. Over 1,000 are those under age 25 each year.
Don’t drink & swim, kids.
Be careful out there.