The accidental drowning death in May of American TikTok and Instagram influencer Emilie Kiser’s three-year-old son is a tragedy that’s universal and one that shakes every parent, every family to its core.
A police report alleges Emilie’s son, Trigg, was playing near the family’s backyard pool with an inflatable chair and was believed to have tripped and fallen into the water accidentally.
It’s also alleged that Emilie’s husband Brady was home at the time with their newborn but was distracted from actively supervising Trigg. It’s estimated Trigg was in the pool for seven minutes before being discovered.
This shocking tale highlights that children drown fast, quietly and often when parents are distracted.
Emma Dommett, co-owner of Shapland Swim Schools Aura, says children like Trigg remind us that even loving, attentive parents can experience a tragedy in just a few minutes of inattention.
“The best protection isn’t just swim lessons or pool fences – it’s a watchful, undistracted adult within arm’s reach, every time a child is near water. Put mobile phones away.”
In Australia, the drowning deaths of children aged zero to four fell this year to 21 per cent below the 10-year average, according to Royal Life Saving Australia’s National Drowning Report 2025.
While this statistic is encouraging, the report found that the majority of drowning deaths of kids in this age group happened in a swimming pool (53 per cent), followed by lakes and dams (27 per cent).
Sixty per cent of all drowning deaths in this cohort were male.
The report also highlights that the leading activity prior to drowning was an unintentional fall into water (53 per cent), followed by swimming and recreating (13 per cent).
“Most drownings in this age group (0-4 years) happen from unexpected entry – a toddler leaning over the pool edge or chasing a toy. Knowing safe entry and exit habits builds awareness and reduces risk,” Emma says.
Forest Glen’s Bubble’n’Kick swim school’s managing director and trainer Kymberlee Clift says it takes less than three centimetres of water and under 30 seconds to drown – less time than boiling the kettle or ordering Uber Eats.
“As a paramedic and swim instructor, too many times have I attended, or been told stories, of children drowning surrounded by adults because everyone thought someone else was watching,” Kymberlee says.
“Too often I see on the pool deck or at the beach, parents on phones or trying to get that Instagram-worthy shot and not actually paying attention to what their children are doing.
They are fast, they are unpredictable – stay alert.”
According to Kymberlee, there’s a dark side to the reported national decrease in drowning deaths of young kids.
“The factors behind the decrease in this statistic are actually more alarming.
“This result is not due to our littlest swimmers being more capable and supervision more active and appropriate, but because our kids are not swimming.”
Factors include limited swimming lesson availability due to an industry shortage of qualified instructors; increasing costs (pre-COVID group classes averaged $16-$20 each, post-COVID, 30-minute group lessons are $25-$30-plus); reduced practice and exposure time within lessons (lesson standard was 30 minutes, increasingly lessons are being shortened to reduce costs to $20-$22 per lesson).
Emma adds that water safety should never depend on affordability.
“Swimming isn’t a luxury; it’s a life-saving skill,” she says.
“Every child deserves the chance to learn to swim, no matter their postcode or parents’ income.”
The Queensland Government’s SwimStart voucher program provides up to $150 for swimming lessons to eligible children up to the age of four. Emma questions why the vouchers are available only for children under five.
“There are plenty of children over the age of five who can’t swim.”
Royal Life Saving Australia has previously estimated that more than 40 per cent of primary school children cannot meet the national benchmarks of swimming 50 metres and floating for
two minutes.
The report also found 31 per cent of schools do not offer a learn-to-swim program and one-in-four schools do not conduct a school swimming carnival.
One-in-10 children aged five to 14 years has never attended a swimming lesson in any form and the average drop-out age for those who have had lessons is between seven to nine years, well before achieving the national benchmark for 12-year-olds.
Kymberlee is frustrated that not enough priority is placed on water safety and aquatic education.
“Swimming lessons go in the same bucket as soccer and dancing and art classes and are therefore treated as an ‘extra-curricular’, not a ‘non-negotiable’,” she says. “This is evident in parents pulling their kids out of swimming programs before they have graduated from the program to participate in other activities.
“It’s evident in ‘token’ SwimStart vouchers that at best cover six swimming lessons per child and are not accessible to every family, and it is evident in the lack of funding provided to school programs to substantiate appropriate and results-driven delivery.”
Why & where oldies are ‘dying’ to swim
One-in-three drowning deaths in Australia is a person aged over 65 years, making seniors the biggest at-risk group.
In Queensland, the highest number of drowning deaths (20 per cent) were in the 75-plus bracket (based on data collected between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025).
In the Sunshine state, overall, there were 90 drowning deaths during this period, equating to a 36 per cent increase based on a 10-year average of 66. Of those who drowned, 77 per cent were male and 24 per cent were born overseas.
“Generally, males are greater risk takers – both socially and protectively – and they participate in more aquatic activities (fishing and boating, camping and surfing) compared to females who look out for where we can shop, coffee and get our nails done at the beach,” Bubble’n’Kick’s Kymberlee Clift says.
Drilling it down further, the Sunshine Coast ranks number two, second only to Darwin and surrounding areas, as the metro region in Australia recording the highest drowning rate.
Within Queensland, Wide Bay/Sunshine Coast, together with southwest Queensland, has the state’s second-highest incidence of drowning after Torres and Cape, Cairns and hinterland, and northwest Queensland.
Overall, the Sunshine Coast is ranked 33 nationally with 1.37 drownings per population of 100,000.
Drowning deaths in Queensland mainly occurred at rivers/creeks (32 per cent), followed by beaches (23 per cent), and then while swimming and recreating (30 per cent).
Of note, the number of beach-related drowning deaths was up 62 per cent from the 10-year average, and the number of drowning deaths in July was more than double the 10-year average.
Aaron Purchase, state regional operations manager Surf Life Saving Queensland, says there’s a lot to unpack in this data. “Australia has an ageing population, so there simply are more people in that age bracket (65-plus) than there has ever been in the past.”
He says that historically, drownings peak during the summer months, but now it’s “pretty busy” throughout the entire Queensland surf lifesaving season from September to May.
“The population’s increasing, so there’s just more people recreating on the beaches more frequently than what there was in the past. It’s probably reasonable to assume that there is going to be some increase in those stats over time.
“Ideally they’d [deaths] be zero, but realistically speaking, we’re probably never going to have the resources to get to that.”
Speaking to the situation on the Sunshine Coast, Aaron says his observations are mostly anecdotal.
In the 65-plus age group, Aaron says, “All of the drownings that we’ve experienced are outside of the flags or before or after the beaches are patrolled. So, it’s really people who are recreating, whether it’s swimming or paddling, jet skis or kayaks.”
Aaron encourages local seniors to talk to their GP about how they like to recreate and to only undertake water activities that they’re fit to do.
“Then you’re not putting yourself in a stressful dynamic environment like the ocean that, you know, potentially can bring on some of those [medical] conditions, if they are hiding under the surface.”
For the past two years, SLSC Sunshine Coast has delivered a water-safe seniors program, which the club advertises through its social media.
“We run them [seniors] through a few activities about learning about what rip curves do, how they take you out, how to be safe or safely get yourself out of one and other things to look out for so they can enjoy the beach safely.”
SLSC Sunshine Coast also offers programs for migrants and particularly school-age children to make sure they are doing some form of swimming assessment.
“In terms of internationals, we try to ensure that the information we publish is available in a number of different languages and we tailor that based on the data that we get about rescues and drownings. There’s also ‘surf speak’ information on our website,” Aaron says.
“But I think it’ll be an ongoing challenge, particularly as tourism increases. Beaches are one of the biggest drawcards to Queensland and beaches in the southeast corner in particular.”
