High alert for swimmers after 40 drownings so far this year

Victorians are being urged to be on high alert this summer after the deadliest spate of drownings on record, with Life Saving Victoria saying 40 people have died at beaches, pools and other waterways over the past year.

VICTORIANS are being urged to be on high alert this summer after the deadliest spate of drownings on record.

Life Saving Victoria’s latest drowning report shows 40 people died at beaches, pools and other waterways over the past year, including 23 deaths in a horror summer.

MEN OVER-REPRESENTED IN DROWNING DEATHS

ADULT DISTRACTION DROWNS KIDS, LIFE SAVERS WARN

The Herald Sun can reveal there were 13 drownings in January this year — compared to 19 road fatalities in the same period.

The tragedies included a ­father who drowned after saving his two sons at Skenes Creek, and an Indian student who died while swimming off Phillip Island on Christmas Day.

Nippers Claire, 8, Zahli, 10, and Lily, 7, with Surf Life Savers Lucas Waters and Colin Williams. Picture: Mark Stewart

Life Saving Victoria chief Nigel Taylor said: “Forty families have had to experience the unbearable grief of losing someone they love, to a fate that should have been ­preventable.”

The data also shows:

THERE were 67 near-drownings over the past year, two-thirds of which involved men, as well as hundreds of rescues;

HALF of all drownings happened at beaches, while 35 per cent were at lakes, dams, rivers and creeks;

ALCOHOL or illicit drugs contributed to nine deaths in the past 12 months; and

ONLY 45 per cent of council-owned pools had completed a safety assessment in the past three years.

Life Saving Victoria principal research associate Dr Bernadette Matthews said the increase in coastal drownings was the “biggest concern” after a “terrible summer”.

She said people would be surprised to learn that summer drownings were becoming com­parable to road fatalities.

Life Saving Victoria chief executive Nigel Taylor.

While the rate of drowning has decreased among young children, a major achievement in the 20th year of the “Play it Safe by the Water” campaign, it has increased among adult men.

With men three times as likely to drown as women, Dr Matthews said there was an “ongoing challenge” to get safety messages through to men who think “it won’t happen to me”.

“All it takes is one time where you’re not aware of the potential dangers,” she said.

Popular bayside beaches at St Kilda, Frankston and Williamstown will be patrolled by paid lifeguards for the first time throughout peak periods this summer.

The Herald Sun can also reveal 97 per cent of government schools are now offering swimming programs, up from 91 per cent last year, to ensure all primary school students can meet the mandatory target of swimming 50 metres.

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