Preventable accidents? Warning signs to buy, display, demand

 

I read about four kinds of fatalities this month (October 2023). 

1 A passenger in a train lost their life looking out, learning out of a window. One of several accidents and near accidents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK1mYj8B5Z0

2 A major fire at a wedding in Iraq. The video shows fireworks setting fire to decorations above. Reports imply that the non fireproof cladding installed without breaks allowed the fire to spread rapidly. If the fireworks had not been set off indoors this would not have happened. However, the owner appears to blame an electrical fault. In my opinion that would make the cladding more of a culprit. Because any kind of spark, electrical as well as fireworks, candles, arson, could have caused a rapid spread of fire. The other factors which exacerbate in this kind of fire emergency, were inadequate fire exits, lack of fire extinguishers. In many UK Toastmasters meetings the MC (master of ceremonies) starts by indicating the location of toilets and fire exits. An event organizer or bride and groom should have a checklist which includes safety of venue, including fire exits (how many do you need for how many people?), are there lights showing the way to fire exits (like on aircraft) so you can reach the nearest exit. Should there be a warning before fireworks are started. Should they be banned indoors and near trees and bushes? (In the UK a tenant lit a flame indoors for a baby blessing ceremony. She repeatedly insisted that you MUST go seven times around a fire to bless the baby. yes, but not in her building. It should be banned in the lease. 

3 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12576845/The-teenage-girl-died-school-bus-crash-M53-Wirral-named-15-year-old-Jessica-Baker.html

4 A so-called freak accident in which a passenger stood up in the sun roof of a car in a car park. Apparently the passenger was hit by a low roof or beam.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12577065/Teen-18-dies-freak-accident-sticking-head-car-sunroof-hitting-concrete-beam-cruising-parking-garage-second-visited-mall-Canada-features-indoor-waterpark.html

The accident was not a freak accident. It was preventable. If the car would be designed to not move unless the back seat passenger's seat belt was done up. If cards had warnings of Ten Commandments For Safety for front seat and back seat passengers. If the car park was designed so that somebody standing inside a car could not hit their head. If the Highway code carried a page warning of types of accidents with a quiz asking drivers to note them. 

4 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12575453/Iraqi-bride-lost-entire-family-including-three-brothers-grooms-mother-wedding-inferno-left-100-dead-terrifying-new-video-shows-joy-turn-horror-inside-burning-hall-dance.html#reader-comments

Useful Websites

Warnings

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12575453/Iraqi-bride-lost-entire-family-including-three-brothers-grooms-mother-wedding-inferno-left-100-dead-terrifying-new-video-shows-joy-turn-horror-inside-burning-hall-dance.html#reader-comments

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12577065/Teen-18-dies-freak-accident-sticking-head-car-sunroof-hitting-concrete-beam-cruising-parking-garage-second-visited-mall-Canada-features-indoor-waterpark.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fireworks_accidents_and_incidents

Do not lean out of window video

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&ei=UTF-8&p=do+not+lean+out+of+windows&type=E210US739G91802#id=3&vid=c29144d6e6052d24f79c8383e18aacea&action=view

Fire prevention

Order signs from websites. Also fire extinguishers.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=fire+extinguisher

https://www.bradyid.com/signs/fire-exit-sign-cps

https://www.ebmag.com/exit-and-emergency-lighting-and-signage-a-primer-for-these-continually-evolving-life-safety-solutions/#:~:text=an%20exit%2C%20a%20public%20corridor%2C%20or%20a%20corridor,of%20level%20where%20there%20are%20stairs%20or%20ramps.

https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/2018-11/FY06_46e0-ht10_stf_emerg_illumination_checklist.pdf

https://www.eaton.com/content/dam/eaton/markets/buildings/fundamentals-of-emergency-lighting-guide.pdf

https://www.compliancesigns.com/pd/portrait-do-not-lean-out-of-the-car-sign-with-symbol-nhep-34242

https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Publications-and-media/Blogs-Landing-Page/NFPA-Today/Blog-Posts/2021/07/16/Fire-Extinguisher-Types

https://www.motorbiscuit.com/illegal-stick-head-out-car-window-sunroof/

Please share links to favourite or important posts.

Safety and swimming pools worldwide

Two well-publicised fatalities in swimming pools: one in the USA, one in the UK. (Demi Moore. Barrymore.)

Pools in Private Residences in Australasia
In Australia and New Zealand it's the law that you fence off swimming pools so that children don't fall in after it was found that more people died in swimming pools than in the ocean. This was featured on stamps - as I learned in the post office in New Zealand.

Pools in Condos in the USA
When I lived in a condo in Rockville, Maryland, USA, the pool was surrounded by tennis court style see through wire netting over six foot high - nothing you could vault over. The pool was locked at night. Insurance or local bye-law or state law or all three said you had to have a lifeguard on duty when the pool was open. In fact you had two lifeguards. So if one had a sandwich break, or went to the toilet, or turned up late, or went off early, or turned their back to talk to somebody, the other guard was still sitting watching the pool.

 It's time that worldwide swimming pools were fenced off. Maybe make it mandatory to add a warning sign on the gate.

Private Pools in the UK
Friends of mine living in Hendon used to have a pool. The husband, who was in the medical profession, would not allow his wife or children to swim alone. If the wife was alone she would invite a friend or neighbour into the house if she wanted to swim.

That was to guard against anybody getting into difficulties in the water. Falling in. Or having a heart attack or fainting fit whilst swimming.

What should a warning sign say?

1 Only enter if you can swim and are sober.
2 No unaccompanied children.
3 No parties of more than 100 people without a lifeguard.
4 Nobody to swim solo.

Safety - you can learn from living overseas and seeing what other countries do for safety.

Neighbours in Pinner have a pool. Theirs has a low gate. They had four children.

They were also worried about the safety of their neighbour's children. Even when the swimming pool owners were away on holiday, they were concerned that their neighbours children would leap over the low fences between the gardens for a secret dip - even without the swimming children's own parents knowing.

US and Singapore
Many condominiums in Singapore and the USA have swimming pools. In Singapore I went to a meeting in a condo which had been in the newspapers because a toddler had drowned in the unfenced pool. The family had been preparing for a wedding or similar large celebration. Both mother and maid thought the other one was looking after the child. the family were busy making food, serving drink and greeting guests. I thought back to the USA, where I had loved in a condo with a gated pool. That accident could not have happened if the pool had been gated.

What about pool parties? I've been to blocks of flats where they have barbecues beside pools. People eat and drink, stand by the pool watching swimmers. Party goers and visitors walk by the pool. People stand in groups, step back and fall in.

Children and adults, drunk or sober, push each other in for a joke. Women trip over long dresses or dogs or their own bags left lying on the ground. Waiters and bar staff carrying drinks on trays at shoulder level have their eyes up on the drinks or guests and trip over obstructions such as recliners pulled across the path.

I used to wonder why hotel pools and condos closed pools at night. I thought it was to stop people falling in when it was dark, or to stop late night parties making noise when others wanted to sleep. But I now realise that people tend to drink more in the evenings and get drunker as the night goes on. An old saying comes to mind, better safe than sorry.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.