As of: February 22, 2024, 3:30 p.m
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Members of the German Life Saving Society (DLRG) ride in a lifeboat during an exercise.
© Uwe Anspach/dpa
At least 47 people drowned in North Rhine-Westphalia last year.
This means that the number of fatal swimming accidents in the most populous federal state is declining, contrary to the national trend, as the German Life Saving Society (DLRG) announced on Thursday.
In 2022, it recorded 56 deaths in swimming accidents in water bodies and swimming pools in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Hanover/Düsseldorf - In contrast to the previous year's development, more fatal swimming accidents occurred in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2023 at the beginning of the bathing season, but significantly fewer in late summer and early autumn.
Nationwide, the DLRG noticed a significant increase in September - unlike in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The weather is considered to be a significant factor in the number of swimming accidents because significantly more people visit the waters on sunny and warm days.
Across Germany, at least 378 people drowned last year, significantly more than the year before.
In 2022 there were still 355 fatal swimming accidents.
The generally unguarded inland waters were particularly dangerous: 90 percent of the deaths occurred where no lifeguards could intervene in an emergency, explained the President of the DLRG, Ute Vogt.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, as in the previous year, rivers are by far the first in the statistics, followed by lakes and canals.
More than two thirds of the bathing deaths in North Rhine-Westphalia are male.
On a national average, around 80 percent are male over the long term.
When looking at age groups, the most swimming deaths occurred between 36 and 40 years old and between 56 and 60 years old.
Compared to the previous year, according to DLRG data, fewer children and young people died in fatal swimming accidents in the most populous federal state in 2023.
dpa