Y2021-S1 Accidental drownings 2021

With the help of collaborating authorities, the Safety Investigation Authority has collected information on all cases of accidental drowning in 2021. The data was comprehensive, and cases were typically reported as soon as the person was found in the water.

According to the investigation team's definition, the total number of accidental drownings in 2021 was 165. The number of accidental drownings is falling. However, drownings have not decreased by as much as road deaths in the past decades. Relative to the population, there are twice as many drownings in Finland than in Sweden and Norway.

The drownings in 2021 were divided into seven groups based on the nature of the activities being performed. Most people (55) drowned while swimming or splashing around/cooling off in the water. A total of 41 people accidentally fell into the water from the shore or a jetty, 32 people drowned while using a watercraft, in most cases a rowboat, and 25 people fell through the ice. The rest, most of them individual cases, involved hot tubs, bath tubs, showers, road traffic and scuba diving.

The median age of those who drowned was 67, which means that the problems is centred around the elderly. More than two out of five people (44%) were intoxicated, i.e. their blood alcohol level was more than 0.05 percent. In most cases, the blood alcohol level was more than 0.12 percent.

More than half of the people (56%) had a cardiac disease. In one third of the cases, the disease had been diagnosed prior to the incident. A cardiac disease increases the risk of drowning if related symptoms occur while the person is in the water. Only disease-related cases where the person could have survived the symptoms on dry land were included in this group. In other words, fits of illness that resulted in death were excluded.

In general, it seems that the risk of drowning is the result of one's lifestyle and habits acquired over the years rather than a bad choice made in a particular situation. The following instructions for the general public were prepared based on the investigation findings:

1. Live healthily
2. Recognise your own health issues and those of your next of kin, and take them into account in your actions
3. Make sure that a person capable of helping is nearby
4. Purchase a sturdy boat that has a CE marking
5. Make the lakeside area and your jetty safe
6. Get into the habit of wearing a life jacket from an early age
7. Do not go into or near water when intoxicated
8. Be aware of the thickness of the ice

The Safety Investigation Authority recommends the following:

• Parties influencing the safety of water traffic (Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, Finnish Border Guard, the police, Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency, Finnish Swimming Teaching and Lifesaving Federation, Finnish Marine Industries Federation Finnboat and Finnish Maritime Rescue Federation Meripelastusseura) check the scope and content of their work to ensure that they correspond to the issues detected in themed investigation Y2021-S1.
• The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare will clarify the priorities, division of labour, funding and continuity of the work of the parties influencing the safety of water traffic and ensure that the big picture corresponds to the issues revealed by themed investigation Y2021-S1. These parties include but are not limited to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, the Finnish Border Guard, the police, the Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency (Tukes), the Finnish Swimming Teaching and Lifesaving Federation, Finnish Marine Industries Federation Finnboat and Finnish Maritime Rescue Federation Meripelastusseura.

The Safety Investigation Authority also repeats the recommendations given based on the previous themed investigation, which can still be used to support the development of safety:

1. Together with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Ministry of the Interior should present concrete goals to reduce the number of accidental drownings and a model of an organisation enabling effective and comprehensive work to prevent deaths by drowning. These could be included in the Internal Security Strategy, for example.
2. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health should develop a procedure for gathering data needed to prevent deaths by drowning and for publishing such data in real time. This data could be collected by an organisation such as the National Institute for Health and Welfare, which should co-operate with the Police.
3. The Ministry of Justice should introduce a bill which sends the message to boaters that it is unacceptable to venture onto the water while under the influence of alcohol. Blood alcohol limits should be tightened and should also apply to rowing boats.
4. The Ministry of the Interior should target water traffic supervision and, in particular, alcohol use supervision on inland waters and small lakes on a broader scale, in order to bring a greater number of Finnish waters under at least periodic supervision. Even small spot checks in previously unsupervised areas would send out the message that there is a risk of being caught and that taking unnecessary risks on water will not be tolerated.
5. Together with the Finnish Transport Safety Agency (Trafi) (currently the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom), the Ministry of Transport and Communications should develop means of significantly increasing the use of flotation garments, especially in small boats. The Investigation Commission believes that regulatory guidelines should be introduced as an effective means of pursuing this aim.
6. The National Board of Education should set the goal that all school children who are capable of learning to swim should do so while still at primary school. In areas with no swimming halls, transportation, camp-based instruction or visits to natural waters should be arranged. Such co-operation should include the Defence Forces, whose task would be to ensure that all who pass through military service know how to swim.
7. The Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) should be tasked with the distribution of safety information and the production of various reviews, as a permanent part of their public service remit. Related themes, such as safety on water, should be chosen on the basis of the magnitude of the problem in question, its estimated effects and topicality.

Implementation of the first two recommendations is still ongoing. It has been indicated that the third and fourth recommendation will not be implemented. The final three recommendations have been implemented according to SIAF records. In the case of all the recommendations, it should be checked whether there is any need to boost the measures and whether continuity has been secured.

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