Winter bad for drownings

Press, 12 January 1977, Page 12

Winter bad for drownings

Wellington reporter There were 134 drownings during 1976 compared with 139 in 1975. the Water Safety Council says. The worst period for drownings is during the winter months, even though water sports are more popular during the summer, according to the council’s executive director (Mr M. L. Frohlich). While the council’s annual summer campaign ran, drowning numbers were down, but when the campaign was in abeyance between April and October, numbers rose. Mr Frohlich said apathy among those involved in water sports was the main reason for drownings. “People seem to take fewer precautions during the winter. They seem to have a mental block which makes them think it is less risky to follow a summer sport in the winter.” He said the council would try to maintain some level of activity during the winter, but it needed more money for instructors to teach more people how to swim, give

artificial respiration or pursue the increasingly popular sports of Skin diving and canoeing. Unnecessary risks were often taken in canoeing and skin diving because there were not, enough qualified instructors, he said.