KEY POINTS:
Until this weekend, the sun shone on the holiday season. But in terms of lives lost, it has been an unusually gloomy summer.
Almost 50 people, including eight children, have died - or are reliably presumed dead - in various incidents. Many more have had near misses, and others, still in hospital, may yet die from injuries received. In road crashes, house fires, mishaps on and in the water, and in the back country, it has been a summer too often marred by death.
The drowning toll of 13, more than 10 per cent of the annual average since 2006, has been of particular concern.
It is to be hoped that the tragedies will serve as a warning to others: that unattended cooking is a recipe for disaster; that bays crowded with swimmers and waterskiers demand the utmost restraint and caution in the piloting of pleasure craft; that tramping alone in the back country, no matter what one's level of experience, is foolhardy; that one should never underestimate the power of the sea to mock the strength of even the best swimmer.
But it may also be time to consider wider issues of public safety. Attaining the age of 15 may not be sufficient qualification for having control of a power boat or jetski, with no training or test of competence. And boaties who inadvertently leave behind portable radios and distress flares should expect some consequences when tens of thousands of dollars are spent on their rescue after they become lost.
The forfeiture of a boat would not begin to repay the cost they have imposed on the taxpayer. But it would marvellously focus the minds of those who put to sea after them.
