450 people drown in Canada each year, 150 of them in Ontario alone. Many of these deaths are preventable.
‘The solution is simple – teach more people to swim. But that simple goal is hampered by obstacles’
It happens in seconds.
A child splashing at the beach steps over a drop off and slips beneath the surface. A boat passenger tossed overboard, backward and upside down, into the waves, far from shore. A cottage guest, beer still in hand and fully clothed, slips on a dock into a current that sweeps them away into the night.
An average of 450 people drown in Canada each year, 150 of them in Ontario alone. On Friday, Ottawa police recovered the body of a 21-year-old man off Britannia Beach. Last weekend, an unconscious teenaged girl was pulled from the water at Britannia in critical condition, having been submerged for nine minutes. Her status is unknown.
It is an inauspicious start to Drowning Prevention Week, which kicks off Monday with a presentation on water safety at city hall.
