https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/mum-five-drowned-unimaginable-walsall-33972121

There are some odd things about this story.

Lots of stories lately of people drowning in canals but they seem to avoid the obvious question which is, why didn’t they just stand up? And the channel depth of canals includes the silt layer which covers the actual bottom, which can make canals a few inches shallower in places. There’s a myth that silt deepens canals, when it does the opposite.

Canals in the UK are still water, and do not have currents.

This story has been all over Facebook lately in the UK. Many people have commented asking why she didn’t just stand up, and that question got a lot of likes, but no actual answers.

  • this_jury_is_hung@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    A quick Google shows that the maximum draught advertised on that canal is 1.32m, so that(plus whatever safety margin canals offer in their design) is presumably the minimum depth at any point of the canal. It would likely have areas which are somewhat deeper.

    It also consists of a series of locks which increase elevation by approximately 2.5m each, so any one of those if full would be too deep to stand up in.