Principal investigator Amy Peden said researchers would be asking questions of Murrumbidgee River users and breathalysing volunteers as part of a nationwide study.

Wagga was chosen as one of the study sites because the Murrumbidgee was in the top 10 list for Australian river drowning black spots, Ms Peden, the national manager of research and policy at Royal Life Saving Society-Australia, said.

She said figures collated since the start of 2002-03 showed there had been 20 drownings in the Murrumbidgee, nine of them in Wagga.

“The culture of drinking while swimming, boating and fishing at local rivers is a big part of the drowning problem. Understanding how commonplace drinking is, and how it influences risk taking is one of the main reasons we’re collecting this data in the field,” she said.

Ms Peden said the average blood alcohol content (BAC) of adult drowning victims in Australia is 0.20.

“That’s four times the legal limit for operating a motor vehicle or a boat. We need to better understand why people are taking such risks,” she said.

Wagga Mayor Greg Conkey said the council would be looking closely at the finding of the study, and look at any recommendations “sympathetically”.

Cr Conkey said he was shocked that the average blood alcohol level in drowning victims was 0.20.

“I would urge people to drink responsibly,” he said.

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