As part of its Respect the River campaign, Royal Life Saving Australia is warning Australians not to drink and swim this summer, especially around rivers and creeks.
According to statistics 1087 people have drowned in rivers, streams and creeks over the last 15 years and 80 per cent of these were men – half of them had alcohol in their system.
Royal Life Saving Australia researcher Amy Peden recently said on top of the more than 1,000 deaths, a further 522 people were hospitalised after near-drowning incidents. Many of these people now have permanent disabilities.
She went on to state that on average they see a blood alcohol reading among adults who were drinking in rivers of 0.2 which is 4 times the legal limit.
This is why rivers are where most drownings in Australian occur.
According to Royal Life Saving Australia these are the 10 hotspots,
Between July 1, 2008 – June 30, 2018
- Murray River (41 deaths)
- Brisbane River, QLD (25 deaths)
- Yarra River, VIC (25 deaths)
- Hawkesbury River, NSW (15 deaths)
- Murrumbidgee River, NSW (14 deaths)
- Georges River, NSW (12 deaths)
- Nepean River, NSW (10 deaths)
- Parramatta River, NSW (10 deaths)
- Swan River, WA (10 deaths)
- Tweed River, NSW/QLD (10 deaths)