It's happened again -- another mass drowning in a shallow river.

[bookgirl]

(I deleted the quote I replied to the wrong one)

I feel for the families, but my gosh, wadeing, in a RIVER, is just plain dumb if you don't swim. We have a local lake where any minor even if you can swim requires a life jacket. Hopefully even one parent who sees this and keeps thier kid out of the water or gets swim lessons will be a life saved.

I don't understand owning a boat and not knowing how to swim, I don't understand having a CHILD who does not know how to swim and letting them on a boat or near any body of water. If your kid did not know how to drive would you give them the keys to a car and say good luck stay near the curb and on non busy streets?

I just don't get it.

 

[EllenFrasier]

My kids can all swim and so can we, but I don't think if they were wading around in shallow water that I would necessarily have thought about how
there could be a ledge they could drop off of into deeper water. I'm sure
these parents didn't think about that either, or the teens. Most people who
cannot swim are afraid of the water, so I would think they did not intentionally put their lives in danger. So sad. I hope that now there is a sign or signs erected along the river that warn people of sudden drop offs in the water Maybe it will help save a life.
And I as an afterthought - I think if I was there and my child was drowning, I would be in that water whether I could swim or not! I might end up another victim, but I'd die trying to save my child.

 

[Deb & Bill]

The area where the families were swimming is not a beach. It is adjacent to a park, but swimming is not recommended in the river unless you are swimming from a boat. Several days before the drowning the city dug a deep trench where people were driving their cars out to the sandbar so they cannot drive out there anymore. The sandbar area is not considered a recreational area.

A few years ago, the city cut down all the vegetation in this area to clear out the sexual acts that were taking place in the vegetation along the river. It has grown back a bit and I think the city will need to cut it down again.

Not a safe area to be playing in the river. The river bank changes in this area all the time from year to year.

 

[cm8]

...at the same time this could happen to anyone. We all take risks in life and its by the grace of God that we survive some of them.

. I really agree with what you said. It is just a sad and tragic end. To be on land and see what transpired and not have the ability to do anything about it is un imaginable.

 

[PaulaSue]

So Sad it is still happening. Many years ago, my BFF lost Her Couisn Joe as he drown in a local dam while trying to save a friend (TG his friend survived) who was playing in the water. He wasn't even in the water till his friend was in trouble.