In the UK canals are about 3 feet deep. How come lots of people drown in them?

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Tealx

Registered Member
Unless you're intoxicated to the point you pass out I don't understand how a healthy person could drown in waist-deep water they can stand up in. These drownings are so common that there's urban legends about a Manchester "pusher": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Pusher

On average, a canal in the UK is only 2-4 feet deep at the deepest point in the middle. Judging by the stories, you'd be lead to believe that canals are very deep, when in reality, they're paddling-pool depth.
 
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Tealx said:
Unless you're intoxicated to the point you pass out I don't understand how a healthy person could drown in waist-deep water they can stand up in. These drownings are so common that there's urban legends about a Manchester "pusher": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Pusher

On average, a canal in the UK is only 2-4 feet deep at the deepest point in the middle. Judging by the stories, you'd be lead to believe that canals are very deep, when in reality, they're paddling-pool depth.
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The explanation seems to be contained in the Wiki article you linked: drunk people who have spent the evening at one of the many waterside pubs and go home in the dark along the towpath - kersplosh, glug glug. Also, it is often not that easy to get out of a canal, once you have fallen in. They can have vertical sides.
 
exchemist said:
The explanation seems to be contained in the Wiki article you linked: drunk people who have spent the evening at one of the many waterside pubs and go home in the dark along the towpath - kersplosh, glug glug. Also, it is often not that easy to get out of a canal, once you have fallen in. They can have vertical sides.
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Finding it hard to get out of something that's as deep as a kiddy paddling pool doesn't excuse drowning in it.
 
Tealx said:
Finding it hard to get out of something that's as deep as a kiddy paddling pool doesn't excuse drowning in it.
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Kiddy paddling pools are less than one foot deep. And kiddies aren't pissed.

If one were sober I agree one should stand waist-deep in the water and shout for help.
 
Tealx said:
Finding it hard to get out of something that's as deep as a kiddy paddling pool doesn't excuse drowning in it.
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Absolutely nothing like that, canals are dangerous places. They have crap in them, thick mud, stuff people throw in, concrete, bricks, metal and boats of course. The locks make the banks much higher, you are basically falling off a wall, in the dark into freezing muddy water probably smacking your head on the way down. Add drink and drugs and you are putting your life on the line
 
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People drown in bathtubs, surely they can do the same in canals. Mystery solved. You did say UK, right?
 
I like canals, they are part of Manchester's history and landscape.
I go round a couple of times a year.
 
Tealx said:
Unless you're intoxicated to the point you pass out I don't understand how a healthy person could drown in waist-deep water they can stand up in. These drownings are so common that there's urban legends about a Manchester "pusher": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Pusher

On average, a canal in the UK is only 2-4 feet deep at the deepest point in the middle. Judging by the stories, you'd be lead to believe that canals are very deep, when in reality, they're paddling-pool depth.
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BBC (2018): https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-45173888

Many sections probably still have a lack of lighting and barriers. Some sources claim the inner city canals are more like 4 to 5 feet deep, which would be sufficient to drown substance abusers when combined with the added disorientation of "What's going on?" after taking a tumble into the water. A percentage are suicides. "Accidents and misadventure" occurring even when sober and minus a medical incident (heart attack, diabetes blackout, etc) seem a tad far-fetched unless, in the course of a fall, the head is struck on submerged debris or a different body injury ensues (puncture, broken bones, etc). Even when criminal violence is the cause, it would be the work of various individuals and gang-related retributions -- not a single person.
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C C said:
BBC (2018): https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-45173888

Many sections probably still have a lack of lighting and barriers. Some sources claim the inner city canals are more like 4 to 5 feet deep, which would be sufficient to drown substance abusers when combined with the added disorientation of "What's going on?" after taking a tumble into the water. A percentage are suicides. "Accidents and misadventure" occurring even when sober and minus a medical incident (heart attack, diabetes blackout, etc) seem a tad far-fetched unless, in the course of a fall, the head is struck on submerged debris or a different body injury ensues (puncture, broken bones, etc). Even when criminal violence is the cause, it would be the work of various individuals and gang-related retributions -- not a single person.
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Canal street is a dodgy one. Quite intense part of the city for pubs, clubs, drugs and street violence. As a gay part of the city it was very party busy but good natured and popular with single women. Violence has crept in fairly recently, possibly rival drug gangs. Any way the canal is not fenced, deep, there may even be a lock which means part of drop can be high. A few have fell in on the way home or coming back from other parts of the city.
Violence and foul play happens in any big UK city just like elsewhere but we just happen to have a lot of dangerous canals too.
 
Tealx said:
Unless you're intoxicated to the point you pass out I don't understand how a healthy person could drown in waist-deep water they can stand up in. These drownings are so common that there's urban legends about a Manchester "pusher": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Pusher

On average, a canal in the UK is only 2-4 feet deep at the deepest point in the middle. Judging by the stories, you'd be lead to believe that canals are very deep, when in reality, they're paddling-pool depth.
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2-4 feet deep is the perfect height to hit your head on the bottom and knock yourself unconscious.

I think you are imagining an ideal scenario, when you should be examining the host of ways such a scenario could go very wrong.
 
Pinball1970 said:
I like canals, they are part of Manchester's history and landscape.
I go round a couple of times a year.
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What does this mean? "I go round..."? Short for "around"? Is the meaning "I go approximately 2 times a year? Or does it mean "I go around the canals several times a year?"

Serious question of usage...
 
Seattle said:
What does this mean? "I go round..."? Short for "around"? Is the meaning "I go approximately 2 times a year? Or does it mean "I go around the canals several times a year?"

Serious question of usage...
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They can be travelled in a loop, so one would go round the loop. In the American derivative of our language you might more commonly say "around" the loop. They are interchangeable, though. We tend to favour "round", but I see both and use both. Sometimes one just feels more natural than the other.
 
Sarkus said:
They can be travelled in a loop, so one would go round the loop. In the American derivative of our language you might more commonly say "around" the loop. They are interchangeable, though. We tend to favour "round", but I see both and use both. Sometimes one just feels more natural than the other.
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OK, thanks. Also, it's a canal similar to a man man "river" so how do you go round or around a canal. Wouldn't have have to "cross" it instead (meaning to go across)?
 
Seattle said:
OK, thanks. Also, it's a canal similar to a man man "river" so how do you go round or around a canal. Wouldn't have have to "cross" it instead (meaning to go across)?
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Ha ha! Yeah I went all Manc! Meaning, I slipped into colloquial English for this and other regions of the UK.

"Round" as Sarkus said means around.

"Are y' comin' round r' 'ouse?"

The canals go all over Manchester, you can walk for miles and just pop up in a different part of the city.
 
Pinball1970 said:
Ha ha! Yeah I went all Manc! Meaning, I slipped into colloquial English for this and other regions of the UK.

"Round" as Sarkus said means around.

"Are y' comin' round r' 'ouse?"

The canals go all over Manchester, you can walk for miles and just pop up in a different part of the city.
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"The fellah said ’is bruvver lives near a canal. D’ya know of, like, or follow Dakota Ditcheva? She’s mint and lives there I fink."
 
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Seattle said:
"The fellah said ’is bruvver lives near a canal. D’ya know of, like, or follow Dakota Ditcheva? She’s mint and lives there I fink."
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There's a song called, "Round 'r' way" by Oasis, translation is, "in my area (of Manchester)

I have to admit it is not a nice accent, we drop our consonants and replace them with glottal stops, it can get a little nasal sounding and vowels can get distorted too, especially my area, Gorton.
I probably sound a bit like George. The monastery they mention is where I went to school.

 
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Seattle said:
OK, thanks. Also, it's a canal similar to a man man "river" so how do you go round or around a canal. Wouldn't have have to "cross" it instead (meaning to go across)?
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Yes, man made, but they can form a loop in the same way that roads can. You can "cross" a road just as you can "cross" a river or a canal, and you can go around a loop, or round a loop, of both roads and canals.
Simples. For us Brits, at least.
 
Kitchen sink Dramas broke the mould in the 1960s, actors went from sounding like BBC News presenters to Liam Gallagher practically over night.
Gritty realistic plots, controversial themes, drinking, violence, affairs, interracial relationships, homosexuality and teenage pregnancy.
"A taste of honey" was set in Salford, lots of terraced houses, mills on the decline and of course, plenty of canals.
"A kind of Loving" was set in Manchester, Oldham and other parts of the industrial NW.
(Rita Tushingham, Alan Bates, Albert Finney, all great actors.)
You never really heard of anyone falling in the canals, kids grew up around them in the 60s so we knew the dangers.
The reservoirs probably claimed a few lives though.
 
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