Drowning Research
The Lifesaving Society has been researching and reporting on
drowning and preventable water-related deaths for each province and
nationally since 1990. This research provides a comprehensive fact
base on the drowning problem to guide the Society and others in
developing drowning prevention solutions.
The drowning research process involves data collection, research
tabulation and analysis, and development of reports. A data
collection form and process is used to extract the water-related
deaths data from the offices of the Chief Coroners and Medical
Examiners in each province. The scope of this research:
:::
- Collects the data needed to profile victims of aquatic
incidents, including the circumstances and contributing factors
under which these incidents occurred.
- Includes all deaths in each province and Canada overall
resulting from incidents "in, on or near water"; "near-water"
incidents were included if the incident was closely related to
water-based recreational, vocational or daily living activity, or
if the presence of water appeared to be an attraction contributing
to the incident.
- Includes only preventable (unintentional) deaths. It does not
include deaths due to natural causes, suicide, or homicide.