Iron County Record | 1953-04-30 | Page 12 | Safety Council Plans Ditch Study on Statewide Basis

Safety Council Plans Ditch Study On Statewide Basis A program o( cooperation designed de-signed to combat the ever rising number of deaths caused by drowning, particularly among young children, was formulated In Cedar City Wednesday, when the executive secretary of the Utah Safety Council met with local lo-cal safety leaders. The state executive ex-ecutive conferred with Leland Heywood, Immediate past chairman chair-man of the Cedar City Safety Council and Neal Carter, who was appointed recently to succeed suc-ceed Mr. Heywood. It was pointed out that there were 56 deaths from drowning In Utah -last year, and of this num-bef num-bef 28 were drownings of children chil-dren In Irrigation ditches, running run-ning through the city streets or near farm homes In the rural areas. The local safety council will conduct a survey of the hazard in Irrigation ditches In Cedar City, and cooperate with the state Bluuf a program 10 overcome ' the danger of drown-ings.u" drown-ings.u" The committee will strive to locate all hazardous ditches and canals that may threaten the safety of children, and will then attempt to determine the owner-ship owner-ship or responsibility of control of such ditches, and what reasonable reason-able steps should be taken to remove re-move such hazards by fencing, covering or otherwise. In this connection the pmbable cost of such improvements will be studied stud-ied and then a study made of the possibility of financing such improvements im-provements through cooperation between private interests, community com-munity or county. The existence of any legal obstacles ob-stacles to desired improvements will be studied, as well as any other problems or aspects of a specific hazard of this character which requires special attention. The local safety council would arjpreclate wholehearted cooperation cooper-ation from individuals and organizations or-ganizations in this important undertaking.