The number one cause of accidental death is preventable!
Riverside County Children’s Injury Prevention Network
A comprehensive injury prevention program that includes, drowning prevention, home safety, poison and fire prevention, car seat information, and the distribution of safety supplies.
Riverside County Children’s Injury Prevention Network
1(800) 774-7237
This section's pages:
1. Drowning Statistics
2. Drowning Prevention
3. Drowning Rescue
This section's pages:
1. Drowning Statistics
2. Drowning Prevention
3. Drowning Rescue
Safety Facts
Drowning Statistics
No matter what your age or your swimming skills, you can be made safer near and in the water. Learning to swim is vital, of course, but you must know how to prevent the risk of drowning even before you and especially your children know how to swim.
Alright then. First some facts,* followed by safety tips on the next page.
* My source for these statistics is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Water-related Injuries fact sheet. Apologies for the lack of statistics for outside the United States.
Ten Americans drowned every day in 2005.
Who is most likely to drown?
•Children – of all children aged 1 to 4 who died in 2005, almost 30% died from drowning. Drowning remains the second-leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children aged 1 to 14 years.
•Males – males were 4 times more likely than females to drown in 2005.
•African Americans – the fatal unintentional drowning rate for African Americans of all ages between 2000 and 2005 was 1.3 times that of whites. For African American children aged 5 to 14, the drowning rates are more than 3 times higher than for white children of similar age.
Where do children drown?
Residential swimming pools account for most drownings of children aged 1 to 4 years.
Children who drown in residential pools had been:
•last seen inside their home
•gone for less than 5 minutes; and
•in the care of either or both parents at the time.
How do children drown?
How young children drown depends on their age.
Children younger than 1 year often drown in:
•bathtubs
•toilets
•buckets
Children aged 1 to 4 are most likely to drown in home swimming pools.
Most drownings of those 15 years or older occur in lakes, rivers or the ocean.
