Real-life drowning doesn’t look like it looks on TV.

Scary, but good to know:

Think it’s easy to notice someone drowning? Well, you’re wrong. Drowning is a silent killer. There’s no waving or calling for help of any kind. It’s not like what you see on TV. Many people would not even notice another person drowning at just 30 yards away.

The Instinctive Drowning Response, a term coined by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people instinctively do to avoid suffocation when drowning. The responses to drowning are undramatic and surprisingly quiet. Drownings are the leading cause of injury death for young children ages 1 to 4. Even scarier is that in a small but significant percentage of kids’ drownings, an adult will have watched the whole process, not having a clue what was happening (Source:CDC).

There’s a list of things to watch for at the link.