Dangerous drop-off at Britannia Beach responsible for three deaths: coroner

Article content

Each of the three victims who drowned at Britannia Beach from 2020 to 2023 stepped from shallow water just outside the supervised swimming area into the suddenly much deeper water inside it — where a drop-off exists due to earlier dredging by the city, according to the Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario. 

In a review of the drownings that occurred on July 5, 2020 and July 13 and 14, 2023, Dr. Louise McNaughton-Filion, the regional supervising coroner for East Region-Ottawa, noted other similarities. All three, for example, involved newcomers to Canada who were novice swimmers. They also were with friends or family when they entered the swimming area, where the water depth rapidly changes from two feet to about 10 feet. 

Article content

Additionally, two of the drownings occurred within half an hour of lifeguards going off duty, while the third happened within an hour of when the beach was no longer supervised. 

This year, the June 3 drowning of nine-year-old José-Antonio Burpee, a non-swimmer, also happened when the beach was unsupervised. The exact circumstances of his drowning, if known, have not been released. 

A report for the city on ways to prevent more drownings at Britannia Beach by modifying the sandbars beside the drop-offs, was expected this past spring, but has not yet been completed. 

In her initial report last July on the earlier three drownings, McNaughton-Filion made five recommendations to the city. 

They included increasing lifeguard staffing to coincide with daylight hours; playing a pre-recorded message in several languages when beaches are unsupervised; installing drop-off zone markers at water level where the drop-offs occur; conducting a lifesaving audit at all city beaches at the beginning of each season; and annually identifying potential drop-off hazards in water close to city beaches and considering filling them. 

Article content

Following Burpee’s drowning death last month, McNaughton-Filion reiterated her recommendation for lifesaving audits at all city beaches, adding that reassessments should be conducted at intervals recommended by the Lifesaving Society. 

Last December, the city responded. In a written statement, Dan Chenier, general manager of Recreation, Cultural and Facility Services for the city, noted that none of the beaches in Ontario and Quebec that the city examined have lifeguard supervision hours coinciding with total daylight hours, and said that the daylight at the beginning and end of the day is often not “conducive to effective supervision” of beaches. 

The noon start of the city’s 12-to-7 p.m. lifeguard supervision hours, he said, reflects the lab time required to process water samples taken each day by Ottawa Public Health. As well, the hours, and the city’s 72-day beach season, are dictated by available funding and a shortage of qualified lifeguards, he said.

Chenier said public address announcements are made daily in English and French, from an hour before to an hour after the beach opens, letting the public know whether it is supervised or not. Playing recorded messages after dark and before first light would generate complaints from nearby residents, he said. 

Article content

The city did not directly address the recommendation to install water-level warning markers along the drop-off, saying that numerous factors contribute to changes to the bottom of the Ottawa River, and that buoy lines are moved to reflect them. Shoreline signage was also added last year, according to Chenier.  

At Britannia, the sharp drop-offs are a byproduct of dredging that was done at the beach in 2020 to restore the water depth to its 1990 level, when the beach was last dredged. Over the ensuing 30 years, the accumulation of sand and silt deposits reduced the depth of the water in the swimming area to less than half a metre.

In response to the coroner’s report, Chenier said the city hired an engineering firm to assess any sandbar modifications that might address the sudden changes in water depths along the swimming area at Britannia. The report was supposed to be ready this past spring, but isn’t available yet. 

The city wants to determine “if this sandbar can be removed in proximity to the shoreline and whether measures can be taken to keep it from quickly reforming.” 

Article content

Before it can fix potential drop-off hazards, the city says it must consult and get approvals from numerous parties, including the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority, the Ministry of Environment’s Conservation and Parks Branch, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Transport Canada, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.

At present, however, city officials are not consulting with any of these external groups about Britannia.

bdeachman@postmedia.com

Article content