Safe beach summer is a joint effort – swimming skills, lifeguarding and water safety skills save lives

Last summer saw an exceptional number of fatal accidents and serious incidents on Finnish beaches. The Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency (Tukes) and the Finnish Swimming Teaching and Lifesaving Federation (FSL) explain that you can prevent drowning by strengthening swimming and water safety skills and by making sure the beaches are safe and sufficiently guarded.

In summer 2025, there were 13 fatal accidents that led to the deaths of one or more persons on beaches - almost three times more than in previous years.  As a result of the accidents, Tukes conducted a more extensive study on the accidents and incidents that occurred on beaches in summer 2025. Five ways to improve the safety of beaches were highlighted, which emphasise the importance of swimming and water safety skills, supervision, and safe conditions. 

‘The incidents from last summer show that supervision on the beach, safe beach conditions, and proactive safety work can prevent serious accidents and save lives,’ says Konsta Kulmala, Senior Officer at Tukes. 
 

Five recommendations for improving beach safety by Tukes: 

• Knowing how to swim is an essential water safety skill. Strengthening your swimming skills is the single most important way to prevent drowning. 
• However, just being able to swim is not enough. Water competence also includes understanding the dangers related to water, a realistic idea of your skills, and behaving safely in water. Shortcomings in these skills often lead to serious and dangerous situations and drowning. 
• Lifeguarding saves lives. In summer 2025, the actions of lifeguards prevented many serious accidents. Tukes recommends that municipalities increase the number of beaches with lifeguard presence and develop the preconditions for the work of lifeguards. 
• Beach conditions have a key role in safety. In addition to levelling places where the water gets deep suddenly and removing structural hazards, clearly marked swimming areas make lifeguard duties easier and reduce risks. 
• The party responsible for the maintenance of the beach must take care of their statutory obligations. The maintaining party is obligated to comply with the requirements of the Consumer Protection Act and ensure the safety of the beach. This includes assessing the risks on the beach and the need for lifeguards, providing information on safety to the beachgoers, and recording accidents. 
   

Children’s safety in natural waters requires supervision and foresight 

The Finnish Swimming Teaching and Lifesaving Federation says that just learning how to swim at the municipal indoor pool does not guarantee that a child knows how to be safe in natural waters. In open water, conditions can change quickly: cold water, currents, sudden drops in depth, or fatigue could surprise even a more experienced swimmer. For this reason, it is important that everyone knows how to realistically assess their skills in water before the start of the beach season. 

‘It is especially important to pay attention to supervising children and ensuring that all beachgoers can understand the safety instructions, also those in multilingual communities. Prevention, correct information and safe practices are effective ways of preventing accidents on the beach,’ says Anne Hiltunen, Water Safety Specialist at FSL. 

Water is always a risk for a child who can’t swim. In order for children to stay safe near water, an adult needs to be constantly present, anticipate things as they are happening, and actively supervise the child. A child can get in trouble in water quickly and this often goes unnoticed, even in the shallows. 

Tukes’ report identified various situations in which the child was in danger of drowning because of the guardian’s absence or a general lack of supervision. In many cases, fast thinking from bystanders or lifeguards saved the child’s life. 

Water safety is for everyone 

In Finland, swimming and spending time in or near water is an important part of summer, but not everyone knows how to stay safe. This is why it is important that information about water safety reaches multilingual communities as accessibly as possible. 

The page Viisaasti Vesillä – multilingual communities puts together information about staying safe in water in different languages.  The materials can especially help families, communities, and people who are new to Finland with providing a good understanding of a safe beach culture. 

React fast - save a life 

When someone is drowning, every minute counts. According to Tukes’ report, many serious situations have a happy ending precisely because someone reacted quickly. 

When you’re on the beach, keep an eye on your surroundings and don’t hesitate to act. Alerting help on time, using rescue equipment, and intervening quickly can be key and save lives. 

This summary by Tukes contains more detailed information about accidents on beaches and safety recommendations. 

Further information 

Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency: Konsta Kulmala, Senior Officer, tel. 029 5052097 [email protected] 

Finnish Swimming Teaching and Lifesaving Federation (FSL): Anne Hiltunen, Water Safety Specialist, tel. 044 018 1879, [email protected]