More than 100 people died from drowning in B.C. in 2023, a new BC Coroners Service report says.
The report, released Monday (June 24), details the 101 accidental drowning deaths in 2023 – up from 94 deaths in 2022 – as well as the 858 drowning deaths between 2013 and 2023. From 2013 to 2023, there was an annual average of 78 drowning deaths.
Thirty per cent of all accidental drowning deaths in B.C. between 2013 and 2023 happened in the Interior Health region, followed by 22 per cent in Fraser Health, 21 per cent in Island Health, 17 per cent in Vancouver Coastal and nine per cent in Northern Health.
Fatal drownings were split equally between rivers and creeks or lakes and ponds, each with 28 per cent of all drownings between 2013 and 2023. It was followed 20 per cent of deaths in the ocean, 12 per cent in the bath, four per cent each in hot tubs and swimming pools and three per cent in a ditch.
Since 2013, the Fraser River has had the most drownings of any river or creek at 51 deaths, followed by nine in the Thompson River and eight in the Columbia River. Okanagan Lake had the highest number of deaths at 29, followed by 12 and nine at Harrison and Shuswap lakes, respectively.
The report adds that the most common activities associated with drowning deaths were boating, falling into water and swimming – each at 18 per cent of deaths. There were 158 drowning deaths related to boating, 155 related to falling into water and 152 from swimming.
Drowning deaths tend to peak in July, with an average of 13.1 deaths each year between 2013 and 2023. In 2023, there were 18 drowning deaths in July.
Twenty per cent of deaths were among people aged 19 to 29, while people aged 50 to 59 accounted for 16 per cent of deaths and those aged 70 and above accounted for 16 per cent of deaths.
Between 2013 and 2022, alcohol and/or drugs were found to be a contributing factor in 39 per cent of drowning deaths. However, drugs and/or alcohol were involved in more than half of drowning deaths of people between the ages of 30 and 39. There can be more than one contributing factor to a fatal drowning.
The alcohol and drug data is not yet available for 2023, the report noted.
