Cold Water Safety

by Jane Blockley

Many drownings occur within apparent "easy" reach of safety. In the UK in 1977 55% of open water drownings were within 3 metres of safety, and 42% within 2 metres (UK Home Office). In Canada 1991 – 2001 of those boating and drowned 41% were within 10 metres of the shore, and a further 22% were within 10-15 metres of the shore (Canadian Safe Boating Council / Smart risk survey).

In order to continue our push for greater understanding of safety issues, We have produced a document that describes the dangers involved with how the body responds when submerged in cold water, and provides practical guidelines on how to reduce your risk.

Stay alive...
Stay out of cold water

Cold water kills...
Before you go out, think how you’ll get out

Hold on... to something
Pull out... onto something
Stay still... don’t swim

Keep your face... out of the water
Turn your back... to the waves

Cold water cramps your style.
You can’t swim when you’re cold and stiff.
You can’t grip with numb hands.

Download the documents

Cold Water Safety Guidelines (ENG) (88KB - MS Word)

Cold Water Safety Guidelines (ENG) (101KB - Adobe PDF)

Cold Water Safety Guidelines (DE) (62KB - MS Word)

Cold Water Safety Guidelines (DE) (142KB - Adobe PDF)

Cold Water Safety Guidelines (JPN) (127KB - MS Word)

Cold Water Safety Guidelines (JPN) (60KB - Adobe PDF)

Many thanks to Eberhard Nabel and Henning Lippke for translating the document into German, and Tetsushi Ozawa San for translating it into Japanese.