What about the cold?
According to the US Coast Guard statistic, there were 736 boating fatalities in the year 2009. Of those, 39 were kayakers. When I saw this my first thought was hypothermia but, to my surprise, none involved cold water. Instead, 34 were listed as drownings and 5 as unknown. There went the hypothermia theory.
Sadly, over half of the victims were not wearing pfd's. Such a basic and simple thing. Still, we don't know if they would have survived if they had worn life jackets since 16 of those who drowned had them on. I need to sit with this for a while. Meanwhile, wear your pfd and...
Paddle safe...
DS
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- Silbs
- So far, I have been a father, a husband, a father, a grandfather, a physician, jazz musician, an adjunct professor at a university, taught judo for 3+ decades, fine-arts black and white photographer, mediator, ham radio operator, SCUBA diver, great lakes sailor, ACA level 4 coastal open water kayak instructor. In these pages I hope to share some of what I've learned doing those things.If, on occaision, you feel your leg being pulled, so much the better. All rights reserved.
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6 comments:
Have you by any chance got a link to those, or did you order the old-fashioned paper reports? I would be curious to see how the reporting is worded. Is it really true that none were cold-water related, or is it possible that the drownings could have been caused by cold shock or the swimming incapacition that sets in so terribly fast in cold water (with lethal consequences for a person who didn't wear their lifejacket)?
I was thinking the same thing. I was reading from a summary I received in the mail. You can check out http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/articles/17_Tomczuk_Maxim.pdf
http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/Water-Safety/waterinjuries-factsheet.html
more info
My guess would be that very few people die from hypothermia compared to the numbers of those that suffer from gasp reflex & cold shock.
Good thought, Russ. Don't know if they even look into that.
If someone in the water is not wearing a life jacket, the chances of their cause of death being ruled as "hypothermia" is probably quite low. The incapacitation and swim failure that occurs as someone spends time in cold (or even cool) water will cause them to sink below the water and "drown" long before their core body temperature drops to a fatal level. Hypothermia can be a contributing factor, but is probably not the actual "cause of death" in the coroner's eyes. I also agree that "cold shock" and "swim failure/cold incapacitation" are frequently the actual cause of death in many boating fatalities.
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