SASKATOON – Shortly after a 3-year-old was reported missing on Saturday, RCMP began searching and then a resident found the child in Pinehouse Lake.
The child was taken to a local medical clinic, and pronounced dead.
This tragic incident is prompting warnings from water safety advocates and police, who say summer brings a surge of drowning deaths among young children.
Kristoffer Berg has worked in northern Saskatchewan as an instructor for the Canadian Lifesaving Society. He says there is a higher risk there for drowning, due to many families living near lakes up north.
“Especially toddlers, they aren’t really well-developed yet, they might not really understand the risks but they also haven’t developed the physical capabilities,” said Berg.
RCMP Sergeant Warren Gherasim said it’s important for parents to phone police immediately after they notice any toddler is missing.
“Children wander away from the supervision of their parents and then ultimately, like all kids, are curious around the water and they end up wandering in. And in this particular case recently, obviously it ended up in the drowning death of a 3-year-old child,” said Gherasim.
The Saskatoon major crimes unit is investigating the death and an autopsy will be performed next week.
According to the Canadian Lifesaving Society, drowning is the number one cause of unintentional injury deaths among children ages one to four in Canada and is the second leading cause of preventable death for children under the age of ten.
Water safety advocates are warning that toddlers can drown in as little as an inch of water, in a matter of minutes, so it’s important for parents to be vigilant.
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