Children should always be in arm’s reach when near water.
That from Shelby Rushton, Chief Executive Officer of the Saskatchewan Branch of the Lifesaving Society. She says in the last six weeks there have been four fatal drownings in the province of children 6 years and younger.
One 6 year old drowned at Makwa Sahgaiehcan, another 6 year old in Sucker River, a 6 year old drowned at Tobin Lake and a 2 year old drowned a few days ago in a back yard pool in Moose Jaw.
She says it’s not that the parents aren’t in the vicinity, it’s that they are not actively watching.
“I understand that it happens, it only takes a couple of seconds,” said Rushton. “You turn around to maybe say ‘hey, can you go get that from the car’, or maybe you yell at one of your other kids, and all of a sudden, your toddler is underwater and you don’t know where they are. It happens that fast.”
She says two of the deaths were river related but at the same time, playing on an embankment or a sandbar, with the currents as fast as they are right now, it is very easy to get swept away. Two adults also drowned this summer, a 42 year old man and an 18 year old man who was tubing down the river.
