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Inland Water Research Supported by

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What Do We Presently Know? In the last 13 years (1989 2001) 3,556 people have drowned on lakes, rivers, reservoirs, streams and canals in Great Britain. An average of 270 people drown a year 81.1% (2,877) male and 18.9% (673) female There is no national picture of inland water incident data

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Demography Drowning Incidence Rates Males over 80 (1.32 per 100,000 p.a) Male 15-29 (1.12 per 100,000 p.a) Female rate increases with age 75-79 years (0.34 per 100,000 p.a)

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Seasonal Trends Highest between May and August Accounting for 42% (1,491) of the total number of drownings

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Annual Trends

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Cause and Water Body 63.9% (2,268) occurred in Rivers 23% (815) in Lakes, Reservoirs and Lochs 12.6% (449) in Canals In 43.7% (1557) cause was unknown 15% (531) entered the water involuntary 8.6% (309) swimming 6.4% (230) in a vehicle 5.5% (199) boating 3.1% (113) fishing

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Age Groups of Concern 15 29 Age Group 93.3% (854) Males 35.4% (302) Got into difficulties 12.4% (115) were drunk 11.4% (97) were in a vehicle that entered the water 27.9% (239) of these drownings occurred in May and June Females 25% (15) in a vehicle that entered the water 85 and Over Age Group 66.1% (39) Male, 33.8% (20) Female 22% (13) went missing from home 8.5% (5) had a plausible medical condition 6.8% (4) suffered from mental illness 33.8% (20) of these drownings occurred in April

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Average Drowning per 100 Kilometres per River / Canal 0.65 drownings per 100 KM of Canal per year 0.51 drownings per 100 KM of Rivers per year

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Geography Drownings by County Highest frequency are Urban Conurbations London Greater Manchester West Midlands Glasgow Highest Rural County Hereford and Worcester

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Correlations Significant correlations between regions with more linear features and the number of drownings No significant relationship between the area of enclosed features in a region and the number of drownings

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Inland Drowning Summary Males - most aged between 15-29 Male rate of drowning four times that of females the same age Seasonal trend coincides with warmer months and holiday periods Canals appear to have a marginally higher incidence of drownings than rivers Requirement for formal data collection process that is objective rather than subjective

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What We Need to Know - Incident Data INland Waters Related EMergency Database INREM Aim To provide a central point from where information, in a standard format, relating to incidents at inland water sites that can be obtained by the participating organisations / agencies

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Feasibility Study Undertaken August 01 August 02 Focused on 3 main areas Cumbria Thames Valley Strathclyde and Lothian and Borders Regions Covering approximately 1/5 of the Emergency Services, Operators, Owners, Voluntary Services, Government Agencies and National Governing Bodies

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Feasibility Study Findings The data is available, however there is some clarification required; Reporting systems vary Differing data storage systems Data quality Definitions and Codings Level of data collection Internal and external communications between organisations Grey area of responsibility for co-ordination between Police and MCA (tidal and non tidal boundaries)

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Case Study Cumbria

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INREMs Future Development Phase 1: Initial Research All ready completed and reported to the NWSC Phase 2: Detailed Research / Scoping and Feasibility of establishing an INREM database 2002 / 2003 Phase 3: Establishment of INREM database Late 2003 / 2004

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Conclusions Inland drowning data is currently fragmented and inadequate. There is an identifiable need to create a picture of the of inland water incidents Improve analysis of causation and trends Identify problem areas Improve targeting and promotion of water safety initiatives INREM needs your help!