Queens councilmember introduces bill to gather drowning data
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Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers introduced legislation on Friday to gather data on drownings in the city. Photo by Gerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit
By Ryan Schwach
In an effort to address the drowning issues that have plagued her community for years, Rockaway Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers has introduced legislation that requires the city to establish an annual report on drowning incidents.
The bill, which was introduced on Friday, would require the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to report annually on drownings occurring in the city, including data like date, time, and location as well as the age, race, and the ethnicity of the victim.
Brooks-Powers says the data can be utilized to identify trends and problem areas that can be used to address and prevent further drownings.
“Data was a critical missing piece of our puzzle,” the majority whip told the Eagle on Friday.
Brooks-Powers said that the idea for the bill came when she was holding a hearing on a separate piece of legislation related to swimming in the city and found that she was “unable to find any publicly recorded data on…drownings.”
Brooks-Powers’ native Far Rockaway, as well as the rest of the South Queens peninsula is no stranger to drownings off its shores.
“In communities like ours in Rockaway in particular, which is a coastal community, we feel every drowning,” Brooks-Powers said.
In 2019, at least seven people drowned in the Atlantic off of Rockaway, and last year two teens drowned within minutes of each other in July. A 14-year-old drowned last month after lifeguards vacated the beach due to bad weather.
Notably, nearly all of the recent drownings were people of color, and Brooks-Powers sees increased reporting and data gathering as a way to better understand where beach resources, which are already limited, need to be allocated.
“This can…help in terms of how we prioritize limited resources to make sure that we are protecting vulnerable communities,” she said.
The bill comes in conjunction with Intro. 962, a bill that she proposed earlier this year that would expand access to pools and improve swimming education citywide. The legislation would also identify new locations for pools and ensure that pools at school buildings are open and public year-round.
“Ultimately, the goal of this is to help us make our shorelines safer for New Yorkers and for visitors,” Brooks-Powers said. “We're in a period right now where there is a lot of attention to a very important issue that has been around for many, many years.”
Brooks-Powers also recognized the amount of work done by local groups to increase attention to water safety.
“Residents have done an excellent job in raising this issue,” she said. “The Heart of Rockaway [Civic Association], the Rockaway Beach Civic Association or the Black Surfers Association, these groups have been educating our neighbors and the public for quite some time now around the dangers that exist and in our water.”
Fellow electeds have also done work to address the drowning issues in the Rockaways.
Recently signed into law by the governor was a bill from Assemblymember Stacey Pheffer Amato that creates a Commission to Prevent Childhood Drownings in New York State.
“We’ve sent a signal that the State of New York cares about preventing unnecessary loss of life, and that water safety is not a privilege, but a necessity,” the lawmaker said of her bill in December.
Brooks-Powers’ bill was referred on Friday to the council’s health committee, which is chaired by her fellow Queens councilmember, Lynn Schulman and includes Rockaway’s other councilmember, Joann Ariola.
