DURING the recent festive season in South Africa – December 1, 2014 to January 14, 2015 – NSRI rescue crews responded to 144 calls for help, rescued 151 people, and assisted 40 boats.
In incidents that NSRI responded to, there were a total of 31 fatal drowning incidents, 19 of which were adults and 12 children.
Rip currents were the greatest risk to bathers, claiming the lives of nine people, five of which were children.
The greatest risk to children was being near water, unsupervised.
NSRI responded to six fatal drownings in fresh water, three of which were children.
Compared to the same period last year, the drownings due to rip currents was lower.
There were nine fatal drownings this year versus 13 in rip currents for last December/January period.
Dr Cleeve Robertson, CEO of NSRI, said that the number of fatal drownings for the past two years was similar when looked at nationally.
“The most heartening thing for us this year, is that fatalities from people caught in rip currents was lower than last year. We hope the intensive education we did throughout the year had something to do with this,” he said.
NSRI’s WaterWise Academy taught more than 620 000 children how to avoid danger, what to do in an emergency, who to call for help, and how to do bystander CPR.
“We hope that this year the Department of Education will consider including water safety and CPR in the LO curriculum,” said Dr Robertson.
