Colorado nearing record number of drownings this year, prompting officials to raise alarms over water safety

Drownings in Colorado have continued to rise this summer time, bringing statewide water deaths this 12 months inside 10 of the file set in 2020. 

There have been 26 confirmed drownings in Colorado’s lakes, rivers and streams to date this 12 months. The file set in 2020 was 34 deaths. This 12 months’s deaths rose by 10 in simply the final month alone, placing the state on tempo to interrupt the file. 

Grant Brown, the boat security and registrations program supervisor with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, mentioned most of the deaths this 12 months come from boaters or paddle boarders who don’t put on a life jacket and fall into lakes. 

“Chilly water immersion is an actual deal out right here in Colorado, something below 70 levels is taken into account chilly water,” Brown mentioned. “If you happen to hit that sort of water unexpectedly, your physique will react to that chilly water. Normally you may take a pant and in the event that they gasp and their head’s underwater, that is often what’s gonna result in that drowning.” 

Brown mentioned that ever because the pandemic began, folks model new to water recreation have been popping out in droves to Colorado’s waters. These folks have been gradual to choose up water security suggestions, one thing Brown has seen whereas he’s out on lakes implementing the life jacket mandate. 

“We’re making at the very least 10 to fifteen — if no more — contacts on {that a} day, while you’re out on patrol and that is one lake alone,” Brown mentioned. 

Grant mentioned individuals who neglect their life jackets at house or don’t personal one can get free loaners from some state parks, corresponding to Lake Pueblo and Chatfield State Park. He’s hoping the state can increase the life jacket loaner program to each main waterway. 

“Metropolis municipalities and federal properties, we’re working with these and our different companions as properly to get increasingly of these loaner stations on the market,” Brown mentioned.