Experts fret as summer toll of Southwestern Ontario drownings hits 12

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The heavy summer drowning toll in Southwestern Ontario underscores the need to better communicate water safety messages, some experts say.

Two people drowned in Lake Erie over the weekend, in Leamington and near Turkey Point, raising the toll from that lake alone to four deaths this summer. There have also been at least eight other deaths in lakes and rivers across the region this season.

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Monday, police recovered the body of a 46-year-old swimmer who’d vanished a day earlier in Erie near the Leamington pier, the same area where another man drowned in June.

Two days earlier, the body of a kayaker was found in the lake about a half-kilometre offshore of Turkey Point, the OPP said. Police did not publicly identify the man, but he was described as in his ’50s.

Two people including a kayaker have died in Lake Huron this summer, with other drownings in Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River, the Grand River and a storm-swollen Thames River in London, where a seven-year-old girl was swept to her death in swift currents earlier this month.

Warnings are regularly issued by area water conservation authorities to steer clear of swollen waterways and their banks after heavy storms, such as those that hit the London region last month before seven-year-old Anna Bielli died.

Similarly, public beaches popular for swimming along the region’s Great Lakes are typically posted for unsafe conditions.

Even still, there can be unseen dangers, said Stephanie Bakalar of the Lifesaving Society in Ontario.

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“Large lakes actually have riptides that people are unaware of,” Bakalar said. “We really need people to be aware of what happens in these open bodies of water.”

Tragedy struck last month in Port Stanley when 14-year-old Omer Buz went into the water off the Lake Erie village’s main beach with his older brother but got into trouble in the waves and did not resurface. The boys’ father tried to save both his sons but couldn’t, with lifeguards rescuing both he and the older brother.

The next day, rescuers pulled four people in distress from the lake off the same Port Stanley beach. They were a 12-year-old and a 15-year-old who’d gone into the water, and two adults who struggled in the waves themselves when they went in to try to help the youths.

In another close call,  a 42-year-old man operating a personal watercraft vanished in Lake Erie near Erieau on Aug. 1 after he became separated from a group of other boaters, only to be found safe the next day near Port Glasgow, more than 20 kilometres away. Police pointedly noted that everyone in the group wore safety equipment and that the man who became separated from the group stayed with his watercraft.

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Without specific warning signs about going into the water, Bakalar said the most effective way to prevent drowning is by wearing a life-jacket in open water.

“We do encourage people to wear a life-jacket because you don’t know when you may get a current that pulls you away,” she said. “What we hope, obviously, is that in areas with open water, the owners and operators will post signs that educate the public whether or not it is safe to swim, but it is not a requirement.”

Part of the challenge in raising awareness about water dangers is getting that message through to newcomers, who may not know where or how to access the information.

In both the London and Port Stanley drownings, the victims were from families relatively new to the region or the country itself.

Eleanor Heagy, a spokesperson for the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority, said it’s an “ongoing challenge” to get the word out about water safety.

The London-based authority, which oversees water issues in a large area drained by the Thames that takes in 17 municipalities, regularly issues alerts and warnings when storms and flooding make waterways dangerous. But Heagy said it can be difficult to measure the reach and effectiveness of those advisories, and community collaboration is key.

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One step that might help to get those messages across would be to identify areas with higher numbers of new Canadians with young children, who may not be aware of the dangers or how to access information about them, she said.

“We hope to never hear of another incident like the terrible one that happened (in London),” she said, referring to the death of seven-year-old Anna Bielli.

Karen Fermill, Anna’s mother, said she’d taken her three children to a sandy, shallow area along the Thames near the North London Athletic Fields to cool off their feet after a day spent playing in that park.

When it was time to go, she said, she was gathering up her younger children with her back briefly turned when she realized her eldest child — who’d apparently fallen into the river — was in the water, struggling. She said she desperately tried to reach Anna, but couldn’t and was left yelling for help and trying to get through to 911 on her wet cell phone as her daughter was carried away.

Three days later, after a massive search, the girl’s body was found in the river near Western University, far from where she’d gone into the river.

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Both the Lifesaving Society and the conservation authority work to prevent deaths and injury in the water through training programs.

Bakalar said the society’s programs are usually aimed at school-age children, but anyone can register and lessons can continue into adulthood. Knowing how to survive an unexpected fall into deep water can prevent drowning, which usually happens 15 metres from the point of safety, she said.

“We know that some people have barriers to participation, such as financial barriers. Most municipalities and most affiliates have subsidy programs available. We do encourage people to look for those programs and get their kids registered for the lessons,” Bakalar said.

– With files by Free Press reporter Beatriz Baleeiro, Brantford Expositor and Windsor Star

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