VIDEO: Graphic RNLI campaign aims to reduce drownings

The RNLI has launched a graphic national drowning prevention campaign which shows people fighting for their lives in water.

The lifeboat charity’s Respect the Water campaign, designed to warn people that the coastlines, seas and inland waterways can be dangerously unpredictable, and to show the effect of cold water shock on the body, is part of a major drive to halve the number of coastal deaths by 2024.

Figures released by the charity last night show an average of 59 people die in Irish waters each year — more than the number of pedestrians and cyclists killed on Ireland’s roads.