Dying to help: Fatal bystander rescues in Australian coastal environments

Abstract

Bystanders who drown during a rescue attempt in aquatic waterways are becoming an increasingly important issue within drowning prevention. In the Australian context, the majority of these incidents occur in coastal water ways. This study documents and characterizes bystander rescuer fatalities within Australian coastal waterways that occurred between 1 July 2004 and 30 June 2019 in order to provide suggestions for future public safety interventions involving bystander rescuers. Data was sourced through Surf Life Saving Australia’s (SLSA) Coastal Fatality Database, which collates information from multiple sources. Sixty-seven bystander rescuer fatalities in coastal waterways were reported during the 15-year period, an average of 4.5 per year, which is a significant proportion of the five fatalities previously reported across all Australian waterways. The majority of coastal bystander rescuer fatality incidents occurred in the state of New South Wales (49%), at beaches (64%), in regional or remote areas (71%), more than 1 km from the nearest lifesaving service (78%), during summer (45%), in the afternoon (72%), in the presence of rip currents (73%), and did not involve the use of flotation devices to assist rescue (97%). The majority of coastal bystander rescuer victims were Australian residents (88%) born in Australia/Oceania (68%), males (81%), aged between 30–44 years old (36%), visitors to the location (55%), either family (69%) or friends (15%) of the rescuee(s), and were attempting to rescue someone younger than 18 years old (64%). Our results suggest future safety intervention approaches should target males, parents and carers visiting beach locations in regional locations during holiday times and should focus on the importance of flotation devices when enacting a rescue and further educating visitors about the rip current hazard. Future research should examine the psychology of bystander rescue situations and evaluate the effectiveness of different safety intervention approaches.

Suicide along the Australian coast: Exploring the epidemiology and risk factors

“…Suicide was ranked as the 14th leading cause of death of Australians in 2018 [28], and the leading cause of death for Australians aged between 15-44 years [28,29]. Australia is an island continent with an extensive coastline deeply embedded within Australian culture [30][31][32]. Coastal environments are popular and dynamic, with natural coastal environments (e.g.…”

“…beaches, rocks and offshore waters) common locations for unintentional Australian drowning deaths and other fatalities to occur [31][32][33]. To this end, surf lifesaving services have been established nationally around the coast to prevent drowning and other incidents [33] as well as a growing body of coastal research examining drowning prevention [31,32]. To the best of our knowledge there have been no detailed epidemiological studies that have extended coastal safety research to suicide within Australia or internationally.…”

“…Coastal environments are popular and dynamic, with natural coastal environments (e.g. beaches, rocks and offshore waters) common locations for unintentional Australian drowning deaths and other fatalities to occur [ 31 – 33 ]. To this end, surf lifesaving services have been established nationally around the coast to prevent drowning and other incidents [ 33 ] as well as a growing body of coastal research examining drowning prevention [ 31 , 32 ].…”

When Natural Hazards Intersect with Public Health: A Preliminary Exploration of the Impact of Bushfires and the COVID-19 Pandemic on Australian Coastal Drowning Fatalities

“…The NCIS is an electronic database for which the Department of Justice and Community Safety is the source organisation of the data. Data on unintentional fatal coastal drowning were collated from the NCIS (including coroner’s findings, police narrative of circumstances, autopsy and toxicology reports), media reports and Surf Life Saving Australia’s SurfGuard Incident Report Database as per previous studies [ 29 , 30 ]. All Australian unintentional coastal drowning deaths (up to 12 nautical miles offshore) that occurred between 1 July 2004 and 30 June 2020 were included in the analysis.…”

Forgotten first responders: Australian surf lifesavers and lifeguards

“…Most Australian coastal safety research has focused on drowning prevention and wellbeing of Australians 7,8 and international tourists 9 . However, the mental wellbeing of SLS members is largely unexplored, with currently no scientific evidence from Australia and limited research internationally 10 .…”