Heatwave water deaths - campaign required

[aurpod1980]

I saw the tragic news of two more lives lost in the heatwave, in water.

I believe there needs to be some sort of National campaign to warn people of the dangers of open water on hot days - or any day.

so many lives lost.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0p7j3lwepo

There plenty of campaigns there’s warnings every year and loads of info online

1. People are so locked in their own social media/media bubbles, that they often miss important messages

1. Too many people overestimate their ability to swim

1. Too many people can't grasp simple physics - very large bodies of water are very cold, even in warm weather, cold shock is deadly and even if one becomes accustomed to the cold, trying to swim in cold water is very tiring

If you jump into large bodies of cold water, especially on hot days, death is more likely

Bring on Donald Pleasance and the rest of the water safety ads

Which brings us to point number one again

It is absolutely tragic but there are warnings everywhere

There are a lot of warnings, sadly mainly young teenage boys, alway has been.

Teenage boys do not heed warnings.

Teen boys have always done stupid things and they’ll continue to do them. You could have a massive sign next to every single piece of open water warning of drowning and death and they’d still jump in.

I think anywhere that gets infrequent heatwaves like the UK is always going to have these cases regardless of warnings.

Sadly the youth of today are a law unto their own. I live near a big lake and constantly see teenage boys going to it everyday at the moment. There are more than enough signs and warnings surrounding it to tell them how dangerous it is but obviously they know best. I genuinely don’t think it’s the parents fault here either, I live in a lovely area with great schools.. it’s teenager boys entitled, defiant don’t care behaviour.

TV public information films instead of endless commercial or promotions between programmes would be good, but given how low tv audiences are, not very effective.

Honestly, how many campaigns would be needed to tell us about what should already be obvious?

but where might these teens see/hear something? Like something hard hitting to stop them. It’s so so sad to wake up to hear more news like this and it seems it’s more than ever before.

There are lots of things teen boys don’t do wrong - there has to be something they they’ll see or hear?

Our family has done open water swimming, it has to be really hot and for a prolonged time for most bodies of water to get warm enough to swim without a wetsuit on.

I'm glad my kids have done this sort of swimming so there are fully aware of how dangerous Lake swimming can be. At lest with proper outdoor swimming sessions they have spotters in the water in boats. Smaller lakes make you swim with a float and bright swim hat.

What about in the games they play? Like fornite? Are there adverts? What about one of the big influencers/musicians etc they follow? Could say something.

People won't watch campaigns. It's not like 40yrs ago when we only had four TV channels.

Well plenty is sold to teens and they hear about it somehow. Tik Tok? Snapchat.

i spent a day shopping with my DD yesterday and marketing is going right somewhere as they’re all clones!

So these teens - there is a way to to reach them.

This. I crossed our local canal yesterday. The lads were climbing over the no diving sign to jump into the water.
The police warn them off at least twice a day but they still do it.

I had a word with my ds17 yesterday and despite the number of recent news stories, he hadn't heard about it, and he's a pool lifeguard, so we had a discussion.

It's up to parents to hammer the message home.

There will be plenty more deaths this summer. Teenage boys are incredibly reckless. I saw 2 teenagers on a motorbike yesterday pulling wheelies.

Every year we are bombarded by warnings everywhere.
Unfortunately people take no notice.
They even ignore warning signs right in front of the water they jump into.
I do agree that the publicity needs to be very specific about cold water shock so that the public really understand that this is not just about being able to swim.
IMO the information is too vague and it seems to me that teenagers think that if they can swim they will be ok. This is very misleading.

Dh’s friend died swimming in a quarry when he was 17.
50 years ago, teenagers will always take risks unfortunately.

I live near canals and rivers, there are multiple banner signs about the dangers of open water, but teens still choose to jump off a small structure (not a bridge but I guess a similar height) into the river on hot days.

At times like these I’m glad my DDs are not risk takers!

If the govt wants to get the message through to them, put it on YouTube or Tiktok and make it funny, a lampoon of Donald Trump or Putin in a pair of budgie smugglers doing a belly flop - and then dying of cold.

That might just reach them. Some of them.

I think rather than more campaigns what we need is to make sure that kids learn to swim and receive some awareness of potential dangers as part of the school curriculum.

That means having enough swimming pools and swimming lessons.

Parents as usual should be doing their jobs and make sure their kids can swim and are warned of what could go wrong.

It seems like one in three people in the UK cannot swim properly so funding lessons and not closing swimming pools to me seem more important than wasting money on campaigns when as people have said there is already signage around asking people to be careful.

Yes, it's the same with reckless behaviour on bikes and motorbikes, generally boys, you rarely see girls doing wheelies down the roads. DS went out on his bike when he was about 14 and came home with it completely wrecked, we never did get to the bottom of what happened but I doubt it was from using it properly

Unfortunately, schools lack minibuses and drivers to ferry lots of children to and from swimming pools. Cheaper swim sessions and greater lesson availability at evenings, weekends and school holidays would be useful. Swimming is too expensive.

We absolutely do need such a campaign. I think there’s a real lack of advice on how to swim safely in open water; most advice is just not to do it, which people are always likely to ignore in hot weather.

Practical tips like remembering water is cold even in hot weather, being aware of distances (the far side of the river is much further away than it looks), not staying in for too long (even in the heat you will be chilled after much more than a few minutes), and always watching your friends, might be helpful. And if you’re in difficulties, try and turn on your back.

i go wild swimming all year round and it’s possible to do it responsibly.