BC’s Interior Region has accounted for 30 per cent of the province’s total accidental drowning deaths in the last decade.
According to a report from the BC Coroners Service, 101 people in the province died in 2023 due to accidental drowning, 24 of whom were in BC’s Interior.
Lake Okanagan has claimed the title of BC’s deadliest lake after seeing 29 deaths between 2013 and 2023.
While the region does account for most of the deaths, the Kootenays have seen the least. According to the report, there have been 5 accidental drowning deaths in Kootenay Lake since 2013, and 5 in the Kootenay River.
However, that doesn’t mean the risk on Kootenay Lake is insignificant, according to Nelson local Greg Ottewell, who has lived on Six Mile Beach, north of Nelson, for over 60 years.
Ottewell said there have been upwards of five drownings at Six Mile Beach since the 1960s, but there could have been four more if it weren’t for his wife’s quick thinking.
“About 22 years ago, two girls and two mothers probably would have drowned if it hadn’t been for my wife. We had some munching geese on our beach, and we don’t like geese there, so she was standing at the kitchen sink and said, ‘I’ll go chase them off the beach.’ So she started walking down there, and that’s when she heard some kids on the beach yelling for help.”
Ottewell said when his wife approached the beach, she found four people in the water: two mothers who were lying on their backs floating in the water with two five- and six-year-olds on their laps.
“My wife got the neighbour’s rowboat, and rowed around the point and took them to shore one at a time. The last girl was so cold that she wasn’t responding. That’s the most memorable one, but nobody drowned. Everyone ended up being okay.”
He said at the time of this incident, the water was quite high, and he thinks the risk will be lower this year because the water’s so low.
“These only happened when we have high water. This year there’s no high water at Six Mile Beach, so I think the chances of drowning are very low. When there’s really high water and you don’t appreciate that there’s an undertow, it sort of sweeps you out and doesn’t bring you back into shore.”
The Interior has led the province in the most deaths since 2018, but this year it was knocked to second place with Vancouver Island reporting 32 deaths in 2023.
However, it still leads in most deaths over the last decade, with the report showing 258 drowning deaths have occurred since 2013.
You can find the full BC Coroners Report here.
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