Last year over Fourth of July weekend, a 13 year old young lady and her 8 year old brother were swimming near a homeowner’s dock on the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri when they began to scream. By the time the siblings were pulled from the lake, they were unresponsive and a short while later were pronounced dead. Two hours later on Cherokee Lake in Tennessee, two young boys aged 10 and 11 died in a similar manner (one died the following evening). These were not drowning victims. In all four of these cases, 120-volt AC (alternating current) leakage from nearby boats or docks electrocuted or incapacitated swimmers in freshwater. This little-known and often-unidentified killer is called Electric Shock Drowning or ESD.

Per Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) Director of Technical Services Beth Leonard: “Every one of these deaths was preventable. Any boater and every adult who swims in a freshwater lake needs to understand how ESD happens, how to stop it from happening, and what to do – and not to do – if they ever have to help a victim.”

To assist with this important task, BoatUS has compiled a new online Electric Shock Drowning Resource Center to educate and inform the public about ESD at  BoatUS.com/seaworthy/ESD.asp.

“An effort to increase safety standards on marina docks has been underway for several years now, but few resources have been available for the general public,” said Leonard. “ESD is a complicated subject, and what information has been available for boaters, private dock owners, and swimmers has, all too often, been inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading. Our Electric Shock Drowning Resource Center addresses this problem with a range of helpful articles and presentations, all of which have been vetted for technical accuracy. We’ll continue to add to and update this material to ensure it remains a valuable source of information,” she added.

Be aware of what boat owners, private dock owners, and swimmers can do to prevent ESD.

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