Sask. drowning rates remain high; impaired driving partly to blame

Saskatchewan continues to have a disproportionately high number of rural drownings and has seen an increase in water-related fatalities overall — something that, perhaps surprisingly, can be partially blamed on our high impaired driving rates.

The Lifesaving Society recently released its 2017 edition of the Canadian Drowning Report, noting Saskatchewan was the only province to report an increase in its water-related fatality rate in the period between 2010 and 2014 (the most recent data available in this category). The report notes a 35-per-cent increase in this province when compared to the 2005 to 2009 period, with the rate rising from 1.7 to 2.4 per 100,000. Only Newfoundland and Labrador reported a higher rate at 3.5 per 100,000 — a significant decrease from its rate of 4.6 during the previous five-year reporting period.

While other provinces reported higher rates than Saskatchewan in the previous reporting cycle, the rate of 1.7 still put the province in the top five, tied with New Brunswick.

Although national numbers overall found 39 per cent of all drownings occurred in a rural environment, Saskatchewan’s numbers were double that at 80 per cent. The next highest was Manitoba at 68 per cent. Even the Territories, which have a significantly higher rural population, came in below Saskatchewan, at 71 per cent.

“It’s a bit disconcerting that we keep seeing our numbers going up,” said Shelby Rushton, CEO of the Lifesaving Society’s Saskatchewan branch.

Rushton said it’s difficult to explain precisely why our province’s rates have been in the higher range during the past decade, although she has some theories — including a connection to impaired driving.

She said the numbers show just 40 per cent of drownings in the most recent five-year period were “recreationally focused,” with the others resulting from what are termed “daily living activities” such as bathing and transportation. (National averages show about 60 per cent of such fatalities happen during recreational activities.)

“Submerged vehicles are actually a huge issue in this province,” Rushton said. “We all tend to have a vehicle, we’re always on a gravel road it seems in this province. Because most of our fatal drownings actually happen in rural areas ... there’s sloughs, ditches filled with water, and lagoons in the rural areas, so there’s way more opportunity for your car to accidentally leave the road and end up in those bodies of water. When we go in and we look at the coroner’s reports, we’re seeing a major trend in vehicles leaving the road, and sometimes that’s due to drinking.”

While Rushton didn’t have statistics at her fingertips, she said she’s looked at the coroner’s reports and has personally observed that trend, with many of those deaths connected to drinking and driving.

“Almost every time we looked at those, there was alcohol, blood-alcohol levels,” she said, adding others were simply accidents, such as attempts to avoid hitting wildlife.

Factors in many Canadian drownings continue to be lack of personal flotation devices, alcohol consumption, being alone or, for children, lack of supervision.

“I think it’s complacency,” Rushton said of Saskatchewan’s higher numbers. “I don’t think people think it will happen to them.”

Numbers for 2015 and 2016 showed 14 and nine drowning deaths respectively. This year has seen several such tragedies, including recent fatalities on the South Saskatchewan River and Lake Diefenbaker.