[pantaloony]

It’s not clear to me that most of the drownings were related to inability to swim. If you dump a few hundred strong swimmers in water, unexpectedly and all very close together and panicking, then add that a bunch of them are kids (many of which may well hav been able to swim, ordinarily) then I’d expect a bunch of them to drown. Ever accidentally get in a little knot of people in the water? Makes it harder to swim. Now put some people under you and others trying to swim past you and wait where the hell is my ten-year-old and everyone’s screaming and tugging and pushing and your suit is wet and heavy... I don’t see how a large percentage of the passengers being unable to swim is necessary for a whole lot of them to drown.

[edit] more to the point, do you believe crowd-crush deaths occur because those crushed foolishly never learned to walk?