Water safety: Tips ahead of July 4th weekend

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Authorities shared tips on water safety ahead of July 4th weekend, emphasizing the use of life jackets and situational awareness. 

Minnesota water safety tips

What they're saying:

City officials met at the V3 center in Minneapolis to share the following water safety tips:

• Always wear a life jacket.
• Always be aware of your surroundings.
• If a person is struggling in the water, throwing them a floatation device is safer than jumping in to save them.
• Learn to swim and help others learn how to swim.

David Albornoz, aquatics director for the City of St. Paul, also spoke on the racial disparity among drowning deaths. 

"Every drowning is preventable," Albornoz said. "Not only is it a national epidemic, but this national epidemic impacts disproportionately people of color and immigrants, communities, Black people, indigenous communities, and people of color are three times more likely to drown than people that have access to lessons are swim classes, which is usually white people."