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Short leash?

In Wilson last Sunday, a 16-year-old boy drowned after "pier jumping" with his friends into Lake Ontario. Some friends tried to rescue him; others, frozen by fear, didn’t know what to do.

In Florida last week, an 11-foot alligator lunged at a 17-year-old boy swimming in a river, snapping his arm off below the elbow. The alligator was found and killed and the arm was recovered, but doctors could not reattach it.

In Maryland last weekend, two cousins and an 8-year-old friend – all boys – drowned in a creek on the state’s Eastern Shore. The boys’ parents were at work and police believe they may have gone to the creek to cool down.

These are tragedies. None of them had to happen and, sad to say, they are not uncommon. Swimming is one of the real pleasures of a short summer. At a certain age, it is the reason even to have a summer. The lure is magnetic, but the dangers are real, especially when young people are swimming unsupervised by lifeguards or adults.

It’s not just swimming, of course. Too often we report tragedies involving teenagers driving too fast for road conditions or taking other chances that someone with more mature judgment would know – or, at least, should know – to avoid.

Some things can be done. In Buffalo, police cars are now equipped with water safety devices that officers can use to rescue distressed swimmers. One was used to save a man in the Niagara River only 16 hours after the first cars received the new equipment. Other police departments, in municipalities bordering waterways, would do well to invest in similar equipment.