The Willow River, east of Prince George, on May 7th when a 68-year-old woman slipped and fell into the rapids  250News file photo

Prince George, BC – The BC Coroners Service is urging all British Columbians to take extreme care near rivers and streams this holiday weekend…

Four drowning deaths have already occurred this spring:  a 21-year-old woman was swept into the fast-flowing Swift Current Creek near Mount Robson Provincial Park earlier this week, the body of a 68-year-old woman who slipped and fell into the Willow River, east of Prince George, has yet to be recovered, and two young men were pulled from a popular swimming hole over a waterfall in Golden Ears Provincial Park on the lower mainland.

"People can significantly under-estimate the force that can be unleashed by a fast-running river," says Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe.  "(They) do not realize how different it is from the quite stream where they regularly swim, raft, or paddle."

Lapointe says if a river is running quickly, just 15-centimetres of water can sweep a person downstream, while just over 60-centimetres can carry away most vehicles.

The Coroners Service has released a report into accidental drowning deaths between 2008-2012.  There were a total of 397 deaths in BC over the five year period, the table below shows 43 of those drownings occurred in Northern BC…

                                                                  chart courtesy BC Coroners Service

The report points out that 81-percent of the victims were male.  Lapointe says the statistics also make clear the danger of mixing alcohol or drugs with water-related activities – of all the deaths recorded, impairment was a factor in 40-percent of the cases.