July 2007
Helping Kids Be River-Wise
Drowning is the second leading accidental cause of death for Washington children 0 to 17 years of age, and more children drown in rivers than any other type of water, according to the most recent reports from the Washington State Department of Health. On average, 27 children die each year of drowning. The highest rates in our state are in the 15-17 age group, when young people are more likely to swim in open water (lakes and rivers) without adult supervision, and those rates have been rising since 1995. The second highest rates are in the 0-4 age group.
Part of the danger is that rivers can be deceiving. Water that looks peaceful can turn strong and deadly in the blink of an eye. That’s why experts say it’s important that parents and children learn to practice river safety and to respect a river’s extraordinary strength and unpredictability.
“It’s a combination of cold water, fast-moving water and deep water that can make rivers so deadly,” explains Tizzy Bennett, spokesperson for Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center and the Washington State Drowning Prevention Network.
The water level of a river can fluctuate from day to day. This alters the riverbanks, creates new eddies and changes white water conditions. The Snoqualmie River, for example, can have water levels anywhere from 600 to more than 4,000 cubic feet per second. At its fastest, that’s equal to the size and speed of 4,000 basketballs gushing by each second.
In a review of child drownings, it was found that a quarter of the deaths in rivers occurred when kids were playing on the bank, near the water, says Bennett. She cautions parents to closely supervise children standing or playing near a river, and to teach kids to wear a life jacket at all times, even if they do not plan to get in the water. “The current in rivers can be so strong, that if a child loses his footing, he can be downstream in just a matter of seconds,” she adds.
Kids who visit or live near rivers need to be armed with safety awareness and a sense of caution, says Snoqualmie Valley mother Viki Okerlund. Okerlund founded the River Sense Project, a nonprofit organization that educates kids on how to be “river-wise,” two years ago. She started the project when her adolescent son told her he wanted to swim in the Snoqualmie River, and she realized her community lacked programs for teaching river safety to kids.
Today, the River Sense Project offers one- and two-day classes for children ages 9-12, 12-14, and 15 and older on the Snoqualmie River during the last week of June and in July. Students attend two hours in a classroom to learn river safety, understand the basics of hydrology and study maps to learn the forks of the river. The remainder of the class is taught in and by the river.
The kids are led by instructors from Wave Trek Rescue, a company specializing in training rescue workers in swift-water rescues. The instructors have modified their training to be age-appropriate for kids, and they set up a safe, smooth “strainer” by placing a smooth log across the river with a line. Strainers are one of the main reasons drownings can occur in a river. They form naturally when brush, trees or logs fall into a river, usually on the outside of a bend.
Each kid gets to feel the pressure of the river against the training log, and then learns how to swim out of it and escape a strainer. “Strainers are so dangerous, we would never go near them in a real situation,” says Greg Acker, director of the River Sense Project. “But we want them to understand the force of the water and how strong it is. The kids get to feel all that water and pressure against them. Every child who takes this course will feel that force and remember that feeling their whole life. It will really open their eyes to the dangers of a strainer.”
Kids training with the River Sense Project wear life jackets,
helmets and wet suits. “Some of the kids look surprised at first
when they see the wetsuit, but then once we teach them about hypothermia,
they understand why,” Okerlund says.
Allen Alston, a volunteer with the River Sense Project, says there is
a risk of hypothermia all year round in the Snoqualmie and many other
local rivers due to snowmelt. “It may be 85 degrees outside, but
the water temperature can be 43 degrees. When the body gets that cold,
the brain stem takes over and cuts blood flow to the peripheral limbs.”
Once hypothermia sets in, “you can have a strong swimmer and they
think they can do it, but it just sucks away their strength so they can’t
even splash for help,” Alston says.
“Parents may think their kid’s a great swimmer, but how do they define that?” Bennett asks. “Most of the time it’s in a swimming pool. When you take them out to a river, it’s fast and cold, and it’s easy to misjudge their ability or to misjudge the power of the water.”
To register for River Sense classes ($68-$158, with scholarships available), call Si View Metropolitan Park at 425-831-1900. For information on the project, including school assemblies or community presentations, call Viki Okerlund at 425-441-8140 or Gary Acker at 206-355-7792 or visit www.riversenseproject.org.
For tips on water safety for parents, kids and teens, visit the “Stay on Top of It” drowning prevention Web site, sponsored by Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center and the Washington State Drowning Prevention Network at www.drowning-prevention.org.
Katie Amodei is a Seattle-area
freelance reporter who often writes about health and parenting issues.
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