Heatwave water deaths - campaign required

It really is. Cold water shock isn't that common, and with experience you know when to risk it and can learn to expect it. You also know your limits so you don't go in a glacial lake. British water isn't that cold in the summer. It's rarely below 12°. Panic is what kills

ETA with the exception of the dark Scottish lochs which are crazy cold all year

Social media campaigns would be the way forward. I got a video about keeping your arms under the water to be able to keep your head above the water in my Instagram feed recently.

That was included in my swimming lessons in 1973 and in my ds lessons in 2017. I can't remember which grade.

My child's school swimming lessons seems to have included lessons where they bring in a pair of pyjamas. I'm guessing that's an attempt to teach them that swimming is very different when wearing clothes. I've read about it in Adrian Mole but I don't remember anyone doing that when I was at the swimming lesson age.

I remember the 'Julie knew her killer' advert but, as others have said, teenagers are spread all over the place now rather than reliably watching a TV programme on one of just 4 channels.

But I think something like that advert shown in secondary schools after the Easter holiday would help.

It isn't about being able to swim. The best swimmers can lose consciousness by jumping into cold water. Cold water shock is what kills.

There are national campaigns, it’s all im
hearing on the news at the moment.

It needs proper swimming lessons. Lakes and rivers aren't inherently dangerous, but over confidence and lack of ability are. I live in a country with lots of water and only foreign kids drown. Our kids can swim 25m in winter coat and boots by the time they're 7. Almost everyone does swim lessons because it's viewed as terrible parenting not to, and their kids aren't allowed on school trips etc if they haven't passed their swim exam. You see so many people on here who think their kids can swim and they really can't. Those parents should be ashamed of themselves.

ETA: lessons aren't cheap. There are subsidies for low income families, but you pay for swim lessons before you pay for holidays and days out. It's called parenting.

It's desperately sad, but there are loads of warnings out there and I'm not sure they really help - the problem with teenage kids is that they often think they're invincible and that it won't happen to them.

We absolutely do need such a campaign. I think there’s a real lack of advice on how to swim safely in open water; most advice is just not to do it, which people are always likely to ignore in hot weather.

Practical tips like remembering water is cold even in hot weather, being aware of distances (the far side of the river is much further away than it looks), not staying in for too long (even in the heat you will be chilled after much more than a few minutes), and always watching your friends, might be helpful. And if you’re in difficulties, try and turn on your back.

i go wild swimming all year round and it’s possible to do it responsibly.

Unfortunately, schools lack minibuses and drivers to ferry lots of children to and from swimming pools. Cheaper swim sessions and greater lesson availability at evenings, weekends and school holidays would be useful. Swimming is too expensive.

Yes, it's the same with reckless behaviour on bikes and motorbikes, generally boys, you rarely see girls doing wheelies down the roads. DS went out on his bike when he was about 14 and came home with it completely wrecked, we never did get to the bottom of what happened but I doubt it was from using it properly

I think rather than more campaigns what we need is to make sure that kids learn to swim and receive some awareness of potential dangers as part of the school curriculum.

That means having enough swimming pools and swimming lessons.

Parents as usual should be doing their jobs and make sure their kids can swim and are warned of what could go wrong.

It seems like one in three people in the UK cannot swim properly so funding lessons and not closing swimming pools to me seem more important than wasting money on campaigns when as people have said there is already signage around asking people to be careful.

If the govt wants to get the message through to them, put it on YouTube or Tiktok and make it funny, a lampoon of Donald Trump or Putin in a pair of budgie smugglers doing a belly flop - and then dying of cold.

That might just reach them. Some of them.

I live near canals and rivers, there are multiple banner signs about the dangers of open water, but teens still choose to jump off a small structure (not a bridge but I guess a similar height) into the river on hot days.

At times like these I’m glad my DDs are not risk takers!

Dh’s friend died swimming in a quarry when he was 17.
50 years ago, teenagers will always take risks unfortunately.

Every year we are bombarded by warnings everywhere.
Unfortunately people take no notice.
They even ignore warning signs right in front of the water they jump into.
I do agree that the publicity needs to be very specific about cold water shock so that the public really understand that this is not just about being able to swim.
IMO the information is too vague and it seems to me that teenagers think that if they can swim they will be ok. This is very misleading.

There will be plenty more deaths this summer. Teenage boys are incredibly reckless. I saw 2 teenagers on a motorbike yesterday pulling wheelies.

This. I crossed our local canal yesterday. The lads were climbing over the no diving sign to jump into the water.
The police warn them off at least twice a day but they still do it.

I had a word with my ds17 yesterday and despite the number of recent news stories, he hadn't heard about it, and he's a pool lifeguard, so we had a discussion.

It's up to parents to hammer the message home.

People won't watch campaigns. It's not like 40yrs ago when we only had four TV channels.

Our family has done open water swimming, it has to be really hot and for a prolonged time for most bodies of water to get warm enough to swim without a wetsuit on.

I'm glad my kids have done this sort of swimming so there are fully aware of how dangerous Lake swimming can be. At lest with proper outdoor swimming sessions they have spotters in the water in boats. Smaller lakes make you swim with a float and bright swim hat.