I was listening to CBC Radio this morning and Anthony Germaine, filling in for Rick Clough was speaking to a guy about the tragic death of the young woman who was long-boarding on Mt Seymour Parkway.
During that conversation Germaine brought up the fact that this tragedy, and it is a tragedy, may make some people want to call for the ban or stricter regulation of long-boards.
Interesting that nobody is calling for a ban on boating after a weekend in which three separate boating accidents led to three separate deaths.
The real tragedy in these drowning stories is the simple line, “The individual was not wearing a life jacket.” So many drownings are preventable with the simple choice of putting on your life jacket. Please people, use the life saving devices that are there for you. USE YOUR LIFE JACKET. Drowning is preventable.
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One response to “Long Board Death and Drownings; Preventable”
I too heard this interview with Anthony on The Early Edition. When tragedies happen so do calls for tighter regulations around the activities that are part of the injury. It is interesting that suggestions of banning long-boards are being raised while talk of banning other vehicles like boats are not. Boating arguably cause more injuries than long-boarding.
Banning and tightening regulations aside, these past couple of weeks there have a been a number of boating related incidents reported in BC. I’ve written about them on the preventable.ca blog – http://ht.ly/2bCBT.
What it comes down to is attitudes towards recreational activities. Skateboarding has traditionally been seen as a dangerous sport, boating not as much. Regardless of how the two are viewed, both can be potentially dangerous. Until we change our attitudes toward risk prevention during boating and skateboarding I’m afraid we’ll continue to read news items involving skateboarding, boating, and injuries.