A 57-year-old Lower Mainland man drowned on Monday after jumping into the water at Peachland’s Swim Bay, according to police.
“The drowning occurred just after 2 p.m., when the victim was with family and friends,” Kelowna RCMP said in a statement.
“He jumped into the water and never resurfaced. (His) body was located by the lifeguard who immediately started life-saving measures. (Paramedics) attended but, unfortunately, the man did not survive.”
The man had been swimming in the area off 6th Street and Beach Avenue, police said. About 30 minutes went by before his disappearance was noticed.
Peachland’s Swim Bay is the only beach in the Okanagan staffed with lifeguards.
But on Tuesday, the day after the drowning, signage was up alerting swimmers that no one was on duty after the district gave the lifeguards the day off to recover.
“When I was on scene yesterday, it was very clear they were experiencing tremendous trauma,” said Joe Creron, chief administrative officer for the District of Peachland.
“These are, you know, young women who are lifeguards and they do their very best, but they’re not ready for stuff like that.”
Creron said there was a very sombre ambience when he arrived after learning of the drowning.
“Usually, that’s a bustling area of lots of laughter and fun, and it was dead quiet,” he said. “So yeah, everybody was feeling the pain.”
The B.C. Coroners Service has taken conduct of the investigation.
According the Lifesaving Society of B.C. and Yukon, 21 people have drowned across the province so far this year. Almost half of them — 10 — died in the Okanagan-Thompson region.
“That’s a very high number for the Okanagan itself,” said executive director Dale Miller. “The Okanagan is full of lakes of course, and everybody loves to head there for holidays … so certainly there is a much higher propensity for drownings in the Okanagan — quite unusual this year, though.”
And while the provincial number is down from the 30 drownings reported time last year, the society said it’s still far too many.
“I’m hoping that our messaging is getting through and that people are just being safer on the water and thinking more about what they would do in case something did happen,” Miller said. “We know there are many close calls that we never hear about that could have easily turned into drownings.”
Fewer people would drown if more people wore life jackets while boating, he added.
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