Drownings

Today’s Herald story is:

The Government is being urged to stump up the cash for surf lifesavers and Coastguard operations, as figures show New Zealand has the third highest drowning rate in the OECD.

Yesterday’s Herald story was:

New Zealand had its lowest drowning death toll in six years last year

Now the two stories are not contradictory but I find it puzzling that the stat on the lowest toll in the last six years wasn’t included in today’s story. It is clearly relevant to the story.

In terms of the international comparisons, I presume they are per capita. What would be interesting is if they could be calculated in terms of number of days spent doing water activities.

Having said all that, I’m not against more resources in this area. Our rate is much higher than Australia’s and they certainly spend as much time on the water as we do, if not more.