Campaign to prevent swimming at Ludlow Falls seems to be working

LUDLOW FALLS, Ohio — Every year the Miami County Sheriff’s office gets numerous calls about people swimming at Ludlow Falls. Authorities said this can be extremely dangerous and there’s been a campaign to try and stop people from taking this risk.

Deputies installed no swimming signs a year ago around Ludlow Falls. Sheriff Dave Duchak said so far the campaign has been successful.

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“We would have upwards of 50-60 calls during the summer season. We’re coming up on July 4th, and we’re getting halfway through and only have four calls,”Duchak said.

It’s a dramatic drop from normal, but even with the signs, there are still people that do more than just enjoy the beauty of the falls, which is also against the law here.

Duchak said, “I think it’s a sign that we;re getting the message out that it’s dangerous. Don’t swim there, don’t jump off the cliff there. It’s very dangerous. We’ve had a few drownings over the past 20-25 years and we don’t want to see anymore.”

Even with a recent run of days in the 90s, the numbers have stayed down and Sheriff Duchak said he doesn’t believe they’ve had any calls this week. But, there are numerous types of dangers at the falls, especially following days where we see a lot of rain like Thursday.

“You could have debris. A lot of stuff can be washed downstream so you could have things at the bottom of the waterway that could impale you. You could get tangled up in that you couldn’t swim out. There’s a lot of perils in waterways that you don’t know what’s beneath you,” Duchak said.

All of this is a continued effort to try and prevent drownings here like we’ve seen in the 70s, 80s, 90s and even 2019.

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