People are taking to the water all across Massachusetts, amid historic heat waves and after a long pandemic winter cooped up indoors. That means more boats are crowding our shores, and it may also help explain why there have been more tragic drownings to date this year than usual, as residents desperately seek ways to cool off even in areas where swimming is discouraged or restricted, and even if they do not have much swimming experience.
In a state where access to public pools, swimming lessons, and water safety education has long been skewed in favor of wealthy and white communities, the recent deaths of more than 40 people are the latest indicator that Massachusetts’ profound inequality comes at the cost of people’s lives — not just of swimmers but also first responders, lifeguards, and bystanders who attempt rescues.
The state’s response to the drownings announced last week included proposed legislation to increase fines for illegal swimming in locales already closed off and banning the longstanding practice of open-water swimming at Walden Pond. The proposals somehow managed to be both overkill and hardly enough to address the threat of swimmers treading into dangerous waters. (Following a public outcry and a letter from legislators, the state announced Wednesday that restrictions on open-water swimming will be lifted at Walden with some new safety guidelines.)
Increasing fines is not a terrible idea on its face if it discourages reckless swimming in particularly dangerous public waters and raises funds for water safety and education programs. But it should be done selectively in areas where swimming access is truly a higher risk. Fines shouldn’t be used to cordon off what could be, with enough public investment, relatively safe areas for people to swim or places that people will go and swim anyway, despite the law and in the absence of enough clean public pools. An existing swimming ban at Turtle Pond in Hyde Park, for example, has not prevented recreational swimming there.
Instead, the state ought to be helping people use more public waters more responsibly and safely. Putting buoys in the water — or, at a minimum, equipping the shores of public waters with ring buoys attached to docks that can be tossed to swimmers in distress — is one way to decrease the risk while acknowledging unequal access to recreational waters rather than deeming all such areas off-limits to swimmers. Investing in warning signs in multiple languages at non-state parks, in more pools for all the state’s residents (especially the poorest among them), and in public education campaigns that warn rescuers against jumping in the water without a flotation device could have a far greater positive impact. The Baker administration’s announcement last week that it will increase pay for lifeguards and offer an end-of-season $500 bonus could help address the state’s lifeguard shortage, but it’s worth noting that in some recent drowning cases, lifeguards were present. The administration also told the Globe editorial board through a spokesperson that it will offer more free swimming lessons, extend the hours of spray decks where people cool off, and enhance water safety signage at state parks.
Some proposed efforts won’t solve this summer’s problems; teaching more residents to swim, particularly from communities of color where swimming knowledge is relatively scarce, could take years. But additional measures could be undertaken right away to prevent drownings, including equipping shorelines with flotation devices and instructions for how to use them in the event of an emergency, and public service campaigns to help people understand the risks of swimming at night and in unguarded waters, in coastal waters with rip tides, in situations when warned off by lifeguards, in cold waters, and in storms.
Too many people in Massachusetts don’t know how to swim and too few people know where to swim safely. But the reflex to keep people from going in the water is misguided, especially at a time when access to swimming holes can be a refuge from heat and the stress of living through a pandemic and a form of healthy exercise for those who know how.
It’s also an opportunity to teach people how to swim rather than thwart their access, so that they are at lower risk of accidental drowning if they fall in a pool or waterway or get into a boating accident. Moreover, the answer to unequal access to water safety education is not to close off relatively safe areas where mostly experienced swimmers exercise in the open water. While injuries and deaths will inevitably occur at places where people exercise in the outdoors, the availability of alternative safety measures, such as proper signage and requiring that swimmers wear swim buoys attached to their waists, would make more sense than closing off access to something people do that is largely beneficial to their health.
The devastating high toll of drownings this year may be evidence that more people want to access public waters, and more people therefore incur the real risks posed by swimming in natural areas. The Baker administration should embrace this as an opportunity for far better education, not for behavior control.
This editorial has been updated to reflect breaking news.
Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us on Twitter at @GlobeOpinion.
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