AFTER years of multiple holiday season drownings in the Bay Hall area at Richards Bay, rescue role players met early Tuesday morning to share input on stopping these tragedies.
Police members, municipal officials and Sea Rescue leadership pooled ideas, with additional contributions from tourism and a signage expert, as they gathered at the sombre site of the last double child drowning scene in March.
All stakeholders at the meeting agreed the situation was indefensible.
‘I have been retrieving bodies for many years in this area, but the deaths continue,’ said Col Kobus Olivier of the ORS Sea Borderline Diving Unit.
‘I can never forget the face of every young victim whose body we have recovered and the heartache of their loved ones as we bring them ashore.
‘We simply cannot allow it to continue.’
Col Olivier said clarity in terms of legislation and by-laws would assist the police to take stricter action with ‘undisciplined and often verbally abusive’ crowd members, especially when alcohol was a trigger for bad behaviour and drownings.
It would also enable them to deal with negligent parents and group leaders.
Signage drive
The task of bather safety is being driven by the City of uMhlathuze’s Parks and Recreation Director, Erns van Biljon, who will prepare an item with recommendations for council.
Among others, the need for clear, informative, multi-lingual signage was highlighted.
To this extent, the NSRI has already designed sign boards with emergency call numbers and denoting the exact area where an incident has taken place.
‘Sea Rescue and police divers often race to the wrong place and we only have a short window of opportunity in which to attempt to resuscitate a patient, so it’s important we have an exact location,’ said NSRI’s Brynn Gericke.
Funding is being sought to pay for the signage, which ultimately will cover all bathing areas in the region.
Additional signage mooted included visual depiction of the dangers of the sudden, sharp-drop areas that have led to most of the deaths, as well as boards showing how to do CPR.
The task team agreed that swimming at Bay Hall/Pelican Island should be restricted to a certain demarcated area – preferably at the jet ski section – which would make monitoring and response easier.
Drownings were described as ‘preventable on normal days’, but on holidays such as New Year, paramedics needed to be permanently stationed at the Bay Hall for rapid response.
A number of other preventative, ‘bigger picture’ interventions were discussed, including escalating swimming lesson ans water safety programmes, handing out warning leaflets, regular announcements, demonstrations and use of volunteer marshalls.
