For the second time I was swimming in the shallow end of the pool and saw somebody in trouble in the deep end. She was in one spot, waving, gasping for breath.
I called to the security guard. He did not answer.
Later I saw the guard returning to his desk. I realised why he never answered. He had not heard. He had been away patrolling or on a (toilet) break.
Singapore
Afterwards, I told the guard about the incident. The guard speculated: "It's usually caused by cramp."
I swim before meals, not after meals. I drink water before swimming to lubricate my muscles.
I knew not to swim into the deep end, without a flotation device. I tried saving my mother as a teenager in a pool in Spain.
Spain
I learned that if you cannot life save, you are grabbed around the neck by the other person and within a second both of you go under water.
The Spanish Swimming Pool
The Spanish pool had two incidents in the week or fortnight we stayed there. Afterwards, before we left, they installed a brightly coloured rope just above the water across the point where the shallow end suddenly shelves into the deep end.
Lifebelts
Lifebelts can be very heavy.
I asked the guard to report that the life belts were obstructed and obscured by growing vegetation. He promised to pass on my message.
The life belts are also too high to reach. Too far from the edge of the pool. Too heavy for an elderly person or child to carry. When thrown they don't go far enough because they are so heavy you can only throw them about ten feet, no use to somebody who is twenty feet away.
Looking at the photo again, I notice the handy rope above. Can you throw that, or pull it across the pool? or us it to pull in the lifebuoy when the person has grabbed it?
If the life buy falls short of the exhausted swimmer, you can pull the lifebouy back, and throw it again.
Top Ten Tips - and Lucky 13
1 Fence deep pools in homes and condos and public places.
Australia and New Zealand
When I was in New Zealand, I visited the post office and read about the postage stamps about fencing pools. Australia had investigated the cause of accidental deaths to children. A big culprit was water accidents, drowning.
Fencing
To their surprise, the number showed that more accidents happened in unfenced home pools than in the sea. They introduced a publicity campaign about fencing pools and the drowning numbers went down. Whether ponds or swimming pools, or inflatable paddling pools or Jacuzzis, keep them fenced, and escort and watch children. Don't turn your back on them.
USA
In the USA a fatal accident affected an Indian family who had just moved into a new home they bought. They had planned to fence in the swimming pool. But the accident happened in their first week or two.
Singapore
In Singapore a child drowned in a public pool during a swimming lesson. The instructor was at one side of the pool, checking on one child, back to the other child who was far away swimming to the other side. I noticed that mostly the swimming instructor in our pool gets all the children to swim together whilst he swims behind the last, slowest one. When they are swimming the length of the pool towards the deep end, they swim parallel to and near the wall which they can grab if they feel tired.
2 Arrange rotas of two life guards
3 Install life belts near the water's edge
4 Issue life saving instructions
5 Have resuscitation equipment nearby
6 Train all in your house to swim and life save
7 Learn what to do in a rip tide
8 Understand local warning flags on holiday beaches
9 Recognize sea tsunamis and escape routes signs and directions
10 Keep light flotation devices or anchored ropes nearby
11 mark the change from shallow end to deep end on the pool base when it is empty
12 Cover pools in winter to stop wildlife and pets falling in un-noticed
13 Cover empty pools (so drunks don't dive into empty pools)
14 Display emergency ambulance phone numbers (and nearby life guards' phone numbers)
15 Learn vital words such as 'help', 'swim to the side' in several languages and display them on notice boards
In the USA some states (eg Washington State) have rules about when you should have ropes and float lines.
For example, this depends marking the change from on the depth of the shallow and deep ends. In order to separate activity areas, as well as warning swimmers. (And divers also need to know not to dive into shallow water where they might hit other swimmers or hit their head on the bottom of the pool.)
"Where a pool has a water depth ranging from less than 5 feet (1524 mm) to greater than 5 feet (1524 mm), a rope and float line shall be located 1 foot (305 mm) horizontally from the 5-foot (1524 mm) depth location, toward the shallow end of the pool."
Words for help:
English
Help
Someone's drowning
Throw the lifebelt
Push the lifebelt
French
Aidez-moi (aid or help me)
Au secours (help/for safety)
German (and Swiss German)
Hilfe
Spanish/Portuguese
Socorro (like succour)
Italian
Aiuto (think of aid, but with a t)
Dutch
Help/Hulp
Indonesian/Malay
Tolong
Welsh
Helpa fi
Esperanto
Helpon
| Chinese (Mandarin) | 救命啊! (jìumìng ā!) |
| Chinese (Shanghainese) | 救命啊! (qiuming a!) |
| Chinese (Taiwanese) | 救命！ (kiù-miā!) |
From Collins Dictionary
- American English: life preserver /ˈlaɪf prəˌzɜrvər/
- Arabic: طَوْقُ النَّجَاة مِنَ الغَرَقِ
- Brazilian Portuguese: cinto salva-vidas
- Chinese: 救生圈
- Croatian: pojas za spašavanje
- Czech: záchranný pás
- Danish: redningsbælte
- Dutch: zwemband
- European Spanish: salvavidas
- Finnish: pelastusrengas
- French: bouée de sauvetage
- German: Rettungsgürtel
- Greek: ζώνη ασφαλείας
- Italian: cintura di sicurezza
- Japanese: 救命ベルト
- Korean: 구명띠
- Norwegian: livbelte
- Polish: pas ratunkowy
- European Portuguese: cinto salva-vidas
- Romanian: colac de salvare
- Russian: спасательный пояс
- Latin American Spanish: salvavidas
- European Spanish: salvavidas
- Finnish: pelastusrengas
- French: bouée de sauvetage
- German: Rettungsgürtel
- Greek: ζώνη ασφαλείας
- Italian: cintura di sicurezza
- Japanese: 救命ベルト
- Korean: 구명띠
- Norwegian: livbelte
- Polish: pas ratunkowy
- European Portuguese: cinto salva-vidas
- Romanian: colac de salvare
- Russian: спасательный пояс
- Latin American Spanish: salvavidas
- Swedish: livbälte
- Thai: ห่วงชูชีพ
- Turkish: cankurtaran simidi
- Ukrainian: рятувальний пояс
- Vietnamese: đai cứu đắm
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