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101 drownings last year in BC

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 25 Jun, 2024 03:14 PM

New statistics from the B-C Coroners Service say 101 people accidentally drowned in the province last year, many of them in the summer months.

Acting chief coroner John McNamee says their report looked at a decade of drownings, and May through August were the most fatal months.

Lenea Grace, executive director of the Lifesaving Society in B-C and Yukon, says saving lives means staying water smart, including keeping children within arm’s reach, supervising swimming and going out with a buddy.

While alcohol- and drug-related data wasn’t available for last year, from 2013 to 2022, alcohol or drugs were found to be a contributing factor in 39 per cent of accidental drowning deaths.

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