Editorial: Respect, common sense for water essential to have fun safely
There's always been something enticing and alluring about rivers and lakes, large and small.
Whether it's to drop a line to fish or to speed through an afternoon water skiing or simply to splash around and cool off, bodies of water are people magnets.
But there's a serious side to all this fun.
So intoxicating is the water, so carefree is the moment, that some people let down their guard. They disregard common sense. Personal safety takes a holiday, replaced by risk-taking they wouldn't think of embracing during everyday life on dry land.
It is not yet May and we're still weeks away from Memorial Day and the unofficial start of the boating season, but already someone has died on one of our lakes.
A 35-year-old Chicago man drowned last week on Wooster Lake in Ingleside while fishing in a canoe with his two preteen sons and an adult friend.
Authorities say the man stood up in the rear of the canoe and caused it to capsize. Some tragic factors came into play.
None of the boaters were wearing life preservers when they were tossed into water about 20 feet deep. The water temperature was a bone-numbing 49 degrees. Alcohol was involved.
It could have been much worse. The other fishermen were rescued by people on shore who saw the accident and launched a boat to help.
What happened on Wooster Lake is not unlike deadly mishaps that occur each year in lakes and rivers, and even swimming pools, here in the suburbs and across the country.
The Centers for Disease Control says drowning is the leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide. While overall drowning rates in the U.S. have declined in the last decade, it is the second leading cause of unintentional death for children ages 1 to 14 and the fifth leading cause for people of all ages, the CDC says.
About half of all drownings occur in natural settings, such as lakes, rivers and oceans. Many are tragedies that likely could have been avoided.
There are many reasons people become drowning victims - they can range from not wearing a life preserver and overestimating their fitness and swimming ability to swimming alone and consuming too much alcohol.
Nature often has a hand in this as well. Cold water, storms and high winds make swimming in deep water more hazardous. There are hidden dangers, such as deadly rip currents of powerful, narrow channels of water that pull swimmers away from shore into deeper water at speeds of up to 8 feet per second.
We're not advocating people avoid the water. On the contrary - days spent enjoying the beauty of our lakes and rivers can be among life's favorite memories.
We emphasize only that you go into the water with enough respect, common sense and awareness to have fun safely.