Cold water

Last year I met a policeman, socially, we were both on holiday and didn't talk a lot of shop but one of the things he said caught my attention. He was a member of a police helicopter crew and said they were regularly called to situations involving cold water. It had been noticed that "On more than half the occasions that police attended an incident involving cold running water a fatality was involved" those were his words, well he was a policeman. That wasn't all, no matter what  people may think of policemen most British police are decent people and a lot of them were also dying trying to save these victims. There was one occasion when several people died trying to save a girl who had gone in after her dog, people don't realise, in waist deep water and a walking pace current it is impossible to stand up and in cold water a first class swimmer has about fifteen seconds to be effective before he also becomes a victim.
  That made me think, I enjoy fishing and I did a lot of water sports when I was young, I know about water and have a lot of respect for it, I have pulled people out twice, both times it was in summer, but that was just luck, I would still have tried to help if it had been winter, I consider myself a fair swimmer, but I am not first class. I started paying attention. It seems obvious once you have been told, get down stream and get something across to catch them, then get it at an angle so the current sweeps them into the bank rather than under and away when they can't hold on any more. Do what you have to to get them out, but unless you happen to be wearing a wet suit, boots, gloves, helmet and face mask, you can not help by getting in the water. The dog the girl went after? As I remember it was fine, their fur traps a layer of water around them which keeps them warm and bouyant, it is never worth going in for a dog