US swimming pool incident highlights how people drown quietly

While movie makers traditionally show people in danger of drowning thrashing the water, aquatic facility and waterpark managers, as well as water safety experts, know that the reality of drowning is often very different, with people, particularly children, often slipping beneath the surface of the water quietly and unnoticed.

A recent near drowning in the USA, captured on video and widely viewed through media and social media channels, demonstrates this.

The video shows a child in a public swimming pool slipping beneath the surface and being overlooked by lifeguards, patrons and even by the person recording the footage.

Commenting on the incident, Dan Kwaczynski, Managing Director of Maytronics Australia, explains “the distressing video shows this US school boy nearly drowning in a pool full of students and surrounded by parents, lying unnoticed in the pool for an extended period – in fact, studies show that the average time to detect is well over a minute”

Kwaczynski highlights that there are many reasons that cause a situation such as this, including:

• Lifeguards looking after many patrons at once;
• Lifeguards being on duty for extended periods;
• Surface glare and water disturbance;
• Other distractions such as noise and temperature.

While commending lifeguards for the work they do within aquatic facility and waterpark environments, he also suggests that “anti-drowning technologies can support lifeguards and aquatic managers to get to people in danger of drowning in time. “

Click here to view a video of the incident – the boy has only recently begun to recover after spending time in a coma.

Maytronics Australia are the supplier of the Poseidon drowning detection system which has a proven international track record in alerting lifeguarding staff of swimmers in distress.

For more information click here to contact Maytronics Poseidon via their entry in the Australasian Leisure Management Supplier Directory.

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