AS summer approaches, Royal Life Saving would like to remind readers to actively supervise young children at all times around water to prevent drowning deaths.
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Our data shows that the risk of drowning triples as soon as a child turns one.
In the past 17 years, 202 children aged one year have drowned. Almost all of these deaths were due to a lack of active adult supervision, and most incidents occurred in backyard swimming pools.
Additional data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that drowning is the number one cause of death in one-, two- and three-year-old children (ABS 2019).
Distractions are dangerous, and the consequences can be tragic. Drowning is often quick and silent - it takes only a few moments for a child to slip away unnoticed, fall into water and drown.
Drowning deaths in young children are preventable. Simple safety measures can make the difference between a fun day and a tragedy.
Help us to eliminate child drowning once and for all by always keeping watch of children around water, and ensuring that you have a pool fence with a fully operational gate - and never leave that gate propped open.
In addition, we urge parents and carers to learn how to resuscitate and teach their children water safety skills from an early age.
