Toddler drowning a sad reminder for all

Judging by the thermometer and police reports, it’s summer in Alaska.

Police reports are filled with all the usual suspects — speeders, folks driving without licenses, not using their seat belts and driving drunk. And this time of year we see a seasonal increase in ATV tickets and accidents, accidental gunshots and camping mishaps.

Just over this long weekend in the Mat-Su Borough, a toddler drowned in Big Lake, a 17 year old camping near Knik River Road died in his sleep, a son accidentally shot his mother’s leg while cleaning a gun and a group of five campers wound up needing rescuing from a sandbar in the Knik River where they’d set up camp.

Yup, it’s summer in Alaska.

Some of these are familiar soapbox topics for us: seat belts, gun safety, driving under the influence and responsible ATV use. But the sad story of the toddler who fell into Big Lake Sunday is a particularly sobering one.

Alaska State Troopers report 18-month-old Liam Lloyd wasn’t wearing a life jacket when he fell off a dock and into the lake. Although it was fortunate two Coast Guard soldiers happened to be in the area performing safety checks, we were saddened to have to report their efforts to save the toddler were unsuccessful.

This story puts another sad note on Memorial Day weekend in the Valley, and is a painful reminder that water safety is something we all must take seriously. Making sure children wear their life jackets around water — not just while boating — is essential, especially in a state that boasts more than 33,000 miles of coastline and countless lakes, rivers and streams.

Statistically speaking, anyone wearing a life jacket has a much higher rate of surviving a mishap while boating or around the water. And, we were pleased to learn that statistically incidents like Sunday’s are becoming more rare. According to statistics compiled by the U.S. Coast Guard, nearly 94 percent of children younger than age 6 wear life jackets.

That’s a very high rate, but in truth, anything under 100 percent is a recipe for preventable drowning deaths. What’s also alarming is that as we grow older — and supposedly wiser — the chances we’ll still wear those life jackets plummet like the mercury in January. For children ages 6 to 12, there’s an 87 percent probability that they’ll be wearing their safety vests. That drops to nearly 39 percent for teens age 13 to 17. And adults — who should be leading by example — are the worst offenders, with only 22.3 percent wearing their life jackets.

The numbers were compiled in 2009, the last year for which complete statistics are available, and show that over the previous 12 years, adult life jacket wear rates were the lowest since 1997.

It’s no secret children will model the behavior of their parents and other influential adults. As parents, we are vigilant about making our children wear life jackets, but it’s a lesson that doesn’t stick when it comes to our own behavior.

In the blink of an eye, a youngster playing around water without a life vest can turn an otherwise uneventful fall in the water into a family tragedy.