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

Crossposted.
Charlie was a teddy bear compared to some of them. The kid that ran out from behind the parked car always made me feel a bit queasy.
I think I did take some things from it though, I didn’t play on ice or fly kites around power lines but some things, like running out from behind parked cars are impulsive when you’re a kid.
Its all very tragic.

"my bloody adult son did it today, thankfully he did risk assess in as far as he knew if he went in it would only be up to his knees but the bloody idiot was still surprised when he got wet."

See, this is where stupid adults get into danger too. They think they have assessed the risks but they aren't necessarily aware of all of the risks. Being plunged into icy cold water up to your knees can cause such shock to the body that you can pass out. If you then fall forward your face is going into the water and you'll drown if no one has seen you. If your whole body is plunged into water that is icy enough the shock can cause your heart to stop beating. It's why you should never go wild swimming alone.

Well the Roald Dahl guide to train safety was very effective in my school/area.

I remember some very graphic "don't play on railways" videos shown in my school in the 1990s.

The fact that people are having to come on here to tell other people not to be horrible about 4 critically I'll children is absolutely mindblowing.

Kids are stupid, dumb, intelligent, clever, quick, slow, fast-thinking, absent minded - all those things rolled into one because they are CHILDREN and not fully developed in any way.

May as well knock on the parents door and say "it's your kids fault for being dumb". Absolutely ridiculous.

Also totally agree about the public message stuff- I went to school in the 90s and we always had stuff like this. I remember being taught about fire safety via Frances the Firefly and everyone must remember the 'king of the road' ads? These things are important because as parents, we can teach our kids all of this stuff but sometimes they just take it in more when it's someone else - our kids sometimes think we are just being overprotective etc.

Thoughts are with everyone involved and I hope those babies pull through, the pain their parents must be in is just unimaginable.

I drove through Solihull today and saw so many blue light vehicles but did not realise why. Sickening to find out when I got home children fallen through ice on lake. The police are working by flood light through night but I can't imagine anyone else will be pulled out alive. Desperately sorry for parents and families involved. They will most likely have bought their children's Xmas presents. I hope the children on life support pull through.

My comment earlier was deleted, but just wanted to clarify that it was the Centre Parcs adults that I was referring to as thick as shit, not these poor poor children....I would never in a million years think that, let alone say it.
My heart breaks for everyone involved in todays tragic events.

Kids are stupid, dumb, intelligent, clever, quick, slow, fast-thinking, absent minded - all those things rolled into one because they are CHILDREN and not fully developed in any way.

That's why they should be supervised near dangerous places/things/water/cliffs/roads/etc.

"everyone must remember the 'king of the road' ads?"

with the hedgehogs? I loved those.

From the sounds of it, 2 were on the ice and the other 4 went to help when they fell in. Two are still missing presumed dead. Absolutely heartbreaking. They are under 12.

Such brave boys to try to help their friends. I dearly hope the 4 pulled out recover. They were all in cardiac arrest.

People were bloody filming it apparently! WTAF!

Horrendous for their parents. Can’t imagine what they’re going through especially the ones who’s sons haven’t been found. Puts everything perspective. I have a similar age son. To think of him going out on a Sunday afternoon in broad daylight with a group of friends (safety in numbers) for a bit and it turning into something as horrific as this!

Thoughts with the emergency services as well.

You don't know how close these kids live near to the lake - you don't know if they've snuck out, you don't know if they've wandered further than they are allowed. We also don't know how old they are.

Ideally, yes, they should be supervised but we just don't know any of the circumstances surrounding this horrific accident to be so judgemental about it.

Could have been something as simple as throwing stuff into the ice to see if it’d break then going to retrieve it (ball, stick etc) without thinking. They could have been warned or maybe their parents didn’t warn them as didn’t realise it was frozen (hasn’t been this cold for that long) or they lived a way away and didn’t realise they’d venture there etc etc.

In a way society is at fault with a lot of this. We had a lot of safety messages when I was at school. It was when they had to use that round spool film tape they projected onto a dodgy portable screen. After use it often got jumpy and had lines through it. However, it was good stuff in absolutely scaring us shitless and getting the message through our heads. Was all generally very graphic, hard hitting. Did the job. Nowadays, show something like that and every kids parents will rock up at school the next morning demanding heads roll. Little Johnny came home crying, little Mary couldn’t sleep and so on. It’s because kids are so sheltered in life now that stuff like this traumatises them. Doesn’t do them any favours though and this sort of stuff is the result.

I live in the US. Our town only permits skating on our ponds when the ice is 6 inches thick, as per the National Recreation and Parks Association guidelines

No. At some point you have to let them have some autonomy. And you can never "be sure" they won't take risks. Every year teenagers and young adults will partake of risky behaviour around water, around roads, around heights, around alcohol, around illicit substances, around sex. You either accept that there is a degree of risk involved in growing up or insist everybody is chaperoned til the age of 35.

It's awful this happened but there's no need to go into full blame and finger pointing mode.

Here’s some Canadian guidance. I’m sure it doesn’t stay cold enough for long enough for any lake to freeze to an appropriate thickness in the U.K.

This can be tricky.

There is a saying, if you are going to drowned do it in cold water.

People who have been in cold water can recover after a longer period than people in warm water.

You cannot declare someone dead from drowning until you have raised the body temperature. So it's possible to be dead but the hospital can't make the decleration.

As for teaching your kids the dangers and supervising them, the parents may not know the dangers, the water may not have frozen before. If it is an immigrant family that have come from a warmer country and the only thing the kids know about ice is from US films.

Or they could be from a colder country and are used to being able to walk out on ice.

Or they could just be kids being kids.

Wow I remember these!

From the nice little cartoon about how to use a pelican crossing with a little girl and her grandad....to Augustus Windsock showing us how to use our arms to indicate while cycling...Jimmmmmmmyyyyyyy who went to collect his frisbee from the power station....the little footballing kid who lost both his feet under an oncoming train...to the frankly terrifying grain silo and standing water one with the shadowy character.

Can't say I recall one about not skating on frozen ponds though. I'm sure it would have been terrifying.

This is just so so sad, these poor children and their families.

Those poor babies and those poor families - it doesn't bare thinking about.

I'm praying from afar, for all of them...

This is a tragedy and hopefully schools and parents will talk to their kids about it as a warning. It is never save to walk on frozen lakes in this country. Anyone who does it is risking their life

How can one measure how thick the ice is though? I guess the ice from the deep freezes in canada etc accumulates over many days / weeks but I still don’t understand how people are able to measure it’s thickness (without breaking it and surely that would cause a bigger risk of it breaking unintentionally if walked on etc?)

Agree with this.

Horrific for everyone involved, including the emergency services men and women working desperately to find and save these children, and those having to relay tragic news.

Where were their parents?

Shameful that it took strangers to stop them.

Shameful that people comment so horribly.

These sort of accidents have always happened.

It's just children doing stupid stuff.

It sometimes ends badly.

I don't think there's any blame really.