Incident in Solihull

[YoSofi]

Comments on news reports are saying that five children/young teens have gone through ice into a lake and are in a critical condition.

Really hope that all involved make a full recovery

We had to watch them at school. In the hall, all of us. I don’t know if it was because we lived in a rural area as it was focused on dangers on a farm, not drinking out of lemonade bottles you found in the shed, that kind of thing, probably the dangers of ice too.. and we all knew why we were watching it.

The messages were very effective though.

Those poor kids and families.

I think hard hitting public information films are a good thing. I still remember the canal one and the electricity pylon one even though there were neither of those things anywhere near where I lived.

And as someone said, even if you start by doing the wrong thing, what you've been taught can kick in and save the situation (e.g. chip fire). Imagine if that PP had never seen the public information film and just carried on doing the wrong thing.

Just so heartbreaking, my heart goes out to all the parents and cant imagine how frightened the little boys would have been. I cant even think about it.

I had the conversation with my kids last night following this tragedy, but haven’t had big discussions about it in the past as rarely happens in this country and our area. I imagine the same for the families involved. It could have been seconds of one or two of them running on the ice and the others trying to save them. They may have been playing near their houses where they always play or parents looked away for a few moments. Please think of the pain the families are going through before making a judgement.

However, the post earlier on about a family at Center Parcs encouraging kids onto the ice on the lake is unforgivable. You dont deserve kids if you deliberately put them in harms way and I imagine this tragedy is very different to that situation.

So awful.

Just sending love to everyone with children really.
I am trying not to imagine it and at the same time can't stop thinking about it.

They're reporting the names of two of the boys, saying they're cousins and the 11 year old is a friend. This is absolutely tragic.

Jimmy saville in one of these 🤦

Public information videos from the 70s, 80s and 90s were a disgrace.

Abducted and murdered? Drowned? Electrocuted? Run over? Your fault. Sensible children don’t do such silly things.

I can’t bring myself to watch the news this evening. I cannot even begin to think what the parents are going through. Utterly horrendous. We have a Loch not far from us and this had made me have another conversation with my DC.

I realised that after posting! ~most unfortunate. Second film in, with the seatbelt ad. Hideous man. I suppose the 1970's was at the nadir of his abusing of children.

Yeah, what were we thinking? It's so much more humane to let kids injure and kill themselves 🙄

That happens a lot now, compared to then, does it?

I just can't help but really feel for those families especially as it's just a week and a bit till Christmas. Absolutely devastating.

I remember as a child nearly stepping on an iced over pond not realising it was actually ice.

Luckily my dad stopped me.

Terrible tragedy especially the 2 that tried to save their mates probably just acting on instinct and lost their lives too.

Children of that era have them imprinted in their minds..
The boy entering an electrical substation, the girl who picked up a discarded sparkler, her blood curdling scream, a child on a farm being hit by a falling gate.{A public safety film about Farm safety called ''Apaches''}
They may not be 'PC' , but they were hard hitting.

If they saved just one life by making kids think, and not act, they were worth it.

My issue with them is the attitude that was inherent within them, which was of course reflected in the time (and in some of the comments here.) Children, no matter how young, were effectively judged for their ‘stupidity.’

It’s part of a toxic set of attitudes that allowed the Saviles of this world to operate in plain sight.

I haven't seen grief competition.

I have seen pain, and empathy, and raw grief - and some very nasty and unnecessary remarks - but no grief "top trumps".

Another thing I have seen on this thread is useful advice of who to contact, and what to do/how best to help if anyone comes across a similar emergency situation, and how the best and safest thing for everyone often flies directly in the face of our instincts (some useful chip pan fire advice here, too).

A life might be saved because of one of these comments. Have you considered that?

3 of the boys have died, aged 8, 10 and 11. The 6 year old still fighting for his life. This is awful 😢

Those films were bloody scary but by god they got the message across. Remember the one with sports day held on an active train line?

Those messages stay with you. You could not have forced me within 10 metres of an electricity pylon.

But anyway. Those poor little boys and their poor parents 😞

I hope to God the boys hearts stopped quickly and they knew nothing of their plight.

Awful awful outcome.

Some of our search and rescue volunteers are called to assist incidences like this, I did the water rescue course which included trying to swim in freezing water one February, and no matter how well prepared you are, cold water shock WILL affect you, and even a strong swimmer will struggle to rescue themselves. We all need to remind our children / nieces / nephews / class of the dangers, over and over again.

one thing I do is Break the ice; if you pass a pond / water course and can do so safely, break the ice with a large stone or stick, make it clear it’s not a safe surface, might help save one person and stop them venturing out onto it. But ONLY if you can do so safely and from a distance.

Thank you emergency services workers, please seek help if you struggle to process what you’ve seen and dealt with, and every sympathy to the families involved and their loved ones and friends.

I don't think that's fair. The films showed the consequences - albeit the worst possible consequences - of potentially unsafe actions. Children couldn't be expected to have the life-experience to know all the risks associated with these things - that's not saying they are 'stupid' simply that they're not old enough to have learned by the experiences of others what is safe and unsafe.

I agree that no one should be be made to feel stupid or to blame. But isn't there an argument for arming kids with knowledge and a sense of responsibility?

And your evidence for that is.........?

There were many attitudes to kids that we find uncomfortable today, but it is a massive and ridiculous stretch to suggest that warning children about the dangers of ice etc somehow pre-conditioned them to be sexually abused.

Kids are massively influenced by what their peers think. Telling them not to do something dangerous because it is stupid is a powerful deterrent. That is not the same as blaming children who do then have accidents.

It wasn’t the consequences.

That dark water one literally says something like ‘I have no power over sensible children.’

Children really should not be held responsible when awful things happen.

The message of those public information films wasn't that children are stupid. It was that children don't always recognise danger or assess risk effectively (true) and gave very powerful messages of what could happen in certain situations. The fact that so many of us remember images and details prove that they made an impact.