Colorado's record number of water-related deaths so far this year

As Colorado swelters, people naturally take to the water. But this year is on track for a record number of drownings in the state's lakes, rivers and reservoirs.

A man who fell off of his inner tube and drowned while on the Arkansas River last weekend became Colorado’s 25th water-related death this season, which is on course to become the worst on record according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials.

“It’s very scary and very alarming. It’s a record no one wants to really hold,” said CPW spokesperson Kara Van Hoose, who added that most of the people who have died on Colorado’s state lakes, rivers and reservoirs were not wearing a life jacket.

“Its paddle boarders, it’s people trying to swim out to trees, it’s people who are rafting or hit their head on a boat,” she said.

In all of 2023, CPW tracked 32 water-related fatalities. The state record was set in 2022 when 42 people died. In 2021, 22 people drowned in state waterways and 34 people perished in 2020.

Van Hoose said this year’s unofficial number is ahead by three deaths from the same point in 2022 — Colorado’s worst year for water-related fatalities.

Those who died this season include a 57-year-old man who fell into the South Platte River near Deckers on July 4, a 65-year-old college professor who fell off her of electric bike into Boulder Creek June 28, and a 24-year-old kayaker and father of two who capsized during an unexpected storm June 25 on a reservoir near Larimer County.

Van Hoose warned that even experienced swimmers can succumb to Colorado’s often unpredictable weather.

“In Colorado we have powerful windstorms that roll in in the afternoons," she said. "It’s difficult to swim against them.”