-5
submitted 18 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) by cbthunderhead@lemmy.cafe to c/world@lemmy.world

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] this_jury_is_hung@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours 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.

this post was submitted on 20 May 2026
-5 points (22.2% liked)

World News

56196 readers
2208 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS