Another tragic death of a child swimming in open water .....

[GertrudeCB]

Surely it's time to bring back the frightening public information films to hopefully prevent incidents like this that happen every year ?

The only person I know who has drowned was an adult man who was a strong swimmer and was drinking. Summer afternoon party. Drinking and swimming are very dangerous.

Not again. So sad.
Is Swim Safe running this year? It's run by RNLI/Swim England and my DDs did it last year on Lake Windermere but run it at various open water locations. They have a safety lesson on dry land then go into the water and learn how to do various things if in difficulty. It was free and I'm much happier now knowing that they know what to do as there dad is a feckless idiot who lets them in rivers.

Yes I think that children,and adults too,need some serious information about swimming and diving into water. You sometimes get groups of kids going to any water place in the hot weather,and jumping in,and fooling around etc.

I read yesterday,that over 250 people drowned in the UK last year,either in the sea,or lakes and weirs etc.

@JaimeBronde That's the one I was thinking of. Dark Water.

Gertrude just rewatched it & still sends shivers down my spine.
It's the voice.

I am a strong swimmer, and swam to county level.

I damn near drowned one day swimming in a river. The only thing that saved me was I could just touch the bottom. To this day, I cannot explain how I lost my bouyancy and was unable to keep afloat.

None of my family noticed. Drowning is silent. My Ex could never understand why I was so paranoid. Keep watching, and keep counting heads. Teach people to go no deeper than waist height.

swimsafe.org.uk/book-your-session

For anyone who would like to know more.

Shukri Abdi could not swim.

I grew up near the sea and I agree that people aren't aware of the dangers - if you are a strong swimmer but you get caught in a current or get too cold that won't help you. Inflatables getting pulled out to sea can also be real risk.

We had a talk from the RNLI about the risks of open water and drinking and swimming when in sixth form- I think a public information campaign would be good