How plausible is this?

[a-Wonderous-Cheese]

Alright so help me scratch a brain itch before I go to bed lol. I cycle the canal towpath a lot and usually find it dead chill. Never really thought much about falling in.

Then I saw this article Chinese Woman Too Occupied By Mobile Phone Falls Into Canal & Dies on some forum about a woman who fell in a canal while on her phone and drowned. The water was only chest deep but she couldn't stand up because the bottom was basically a slippery mud pit and she swallowed water.

Got me thinking: are our canals secretly slippery death traps too? I know they're mostly around 3.5 to 4.5 feet deep, but whenever you see photos of drained canals, the bed slopes to the middle and is caked in thick, slimy silt. Can it actually make you be unable to stand up though? I don't know enough about physics to know if this is plausible or not *shrug*

 

[Efour]

I dont know enough about canals *shrug*

 

[Diddums]

So many questions *shrug*

 

[Feek]

What kind of fest is this?

 

[MartinPrince]

Yes, it sounds very plausible to me. I grew up around lots of canals and have seen friends having great difficulty getting out even though it didn't seem that deep. A girl in my junior school drowned in the same canal.

 

[Jonny69]

If you were to get plonked in the mud upright like an arrow you’d basically

 

[HoneyBadger]

Yes/Maybe/No

 

[Semple]

Seems pretty obvious no? If you're unable to stand upright then you're going to be under water ergo drowning.

 

[Armageus]

strong first second post

 

[petridish]

Something smells fishy cheesy about this post

 

[ci_newman]

Yes our canals are slippery death traps, which is why it is forbidden / illegal to swim in them.

 

[div0]

Obvious solution : Replace all the water with cheese. No more death trap.

 

[tom_e]

Obvious solution : Replace all the water with cheese. No more death trap.

What if it's one of those weird cheeses like quark? Then it would be like quick sand.

 

[a-Wonderous-Cheese]

Morning all, needless to say I survived my morning cycle along the towpath I get the bottom can be slippery, but can it actually be slippery enough to prevent me from just standing? Part of what adds to my uncertainty is I've seen people standing up in canals with seemingly no issue.

 

[Josh]

The bottom could be filled with de-brie

 

[a-Wonderous-Cheese]

Seems pretty obvious no? If you're unable to stand upright then you're going to be under water ergo drowning.

Yeah, I can see not being able to stand up in a shallow canal being dangerous. But is the bottom actually so slippery you'd be unable to since I've seen people standing and wading in canals before

 

[chrismscotland]

Most UK canals are probably so full of rubbish, discarded hire bikes and shopping trolleys that you could just stand on them,

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Most UK canals are probably so full of rubbish, discarded hire bikes and shopping trolleys that you could just stand on them,

It was never the mud that worried me about falling into a London canal, it was all the scrap metal, used needles and whatever chemicals the local caravan utilising nomads and shady “recyclers” had dumped into the water.

 

[petridish]

Yes our canals are slippery death traps, which is why it is forbidden / illegal to swim in them.

Unless you're wearing pyjamas of course

 

[ci_newman]

Unless you're wearing pyjamas of course

I know this is GD, but wut?