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

For the under 50s:

Public Information Film voiced by Donald Pleasance as referenced by pps above.

Agree. If ever you go to Postmans Park in London ( near the Barbican) there is a gallery of plaques commemorating people who have lost their lives trying to save others. A lot of them are young people who died trying to save others when swimming.

Young people, hot weather, cold water. Fatal combination.

There are signs at a lot of these places saying no swimming allowed. But kids, who unfortunately think they know better, just ignore them. Learning to swim isn't the issue as that isn't always the problem - it's cold water shock.

Often , that’s part of the issue. We tell kids they’re a good, competent swimmer , at stage whatever, good form, excellent stamina etc. Those all apply (mostly) to a controlled environment. Heated pool, no tides, no currents, nothing underwater, clear water , no waves , no dips etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_to_Heroic_Self-Sacrifice

Wiki link to Postmans Park memorial. Well worth a visit.

In a world where people are ignoring very clear warning signs, such as those at Hampstead Heath model boating pond, where “no swimming” and “nesting waterfowl” is clearly marked, I think something similar to the road safety campaign, showing the number of deaths last year on a sign shaped like a pedestrian (in this case, a swimmer) might do the trick…

You must be allowed to swim at some point.

The best OW swimmers in the country do a 7.5k race there each July!

Maybe only organised swimming is allowed?

Campaigns CAN reach teenage boys. This one was quite successful, targeting the same group:

But there's no one single organisation that would fund it like there is on the railways. We need to go back to the good old days of public information films.

We need something like the ~"Charlie says" safety warnings of the 1960s/1970s but where the young will see them. I was terrified of going near a pylon because Charlie said it was very dangerous.

Maybe big bill boards along roads by schools, or roads anywhere.

I meant just randomly.
Tge last time we were there (last sumner) tgere were patrols stopping people without PFDs and being too far fron shore without a craft.

We stopped going because of too many family groups (and teens) drinking and nkt supervising small children.

Go back to the old style videos they use to show at schools that warned everyone of what would happen if they did certain behaviours.

There are loads of urban areas with a lot of water about. (Towns tend to be built around rivers and big cities will often still have a lot of canals; also urban lakes are not uncommon.) And most inland rural areas do not have as ready access to open water as the Lake District! So I don't think it's fair to suggest it's a town vs country thing anyway.

What dya what? Talk about rose tinted glasses. i was caught shoplifting in the 80s. Nothing was done. Rave culture was drugged addled, not to even touch on the heroin epidemic!

When something bad happens involving kids, people always say 'they should be taught about this at school'.

We have endless assemblies where people come in to talk about the dangers of drugs, fire, water, traffic, knives, punching people.

Because schools see the dangers and don't want it happening to their kids.

People assume that these things happen because kids haven't been told, when often they have.

It was no different in the past wrt swimming. Just we didn’t have signs up. My uncle used to swim in the Thames regularly apparently.

Bring back Charlie. Scare the shit out of them young.

Maybe there's nothing you can do. As a pp said they know the risks and do it anyway.

There are warnings and campaigns. I have been to one of the lakes where a death happened last week, there is a big, prominent sign which says danger, no swimming but every time the sun comes out it is packed with people swimming in the water literally right next to the sign.

Unfortunately Andrew Tate was the first person who sprang to mind (awful as that is!) 😫

I came incredibly close to death in my late teens, I was in with the hippies and went skinny-dipping in the local 'pits' - ex quarries.

It went fine - I was a very strong swimmer back then - until I went just an extra metre and the water turned ice-cold, I had reached a huge drop in the depth of the floor and it literally took my breath away. Somehow made it back to shore and nobody had any idea I was in trouble. I will never forget it and my kids are well-educated on the risks of open water.

My grandmother who would have been 95 if she were still alive told me that a boy drowned whilst they were all swimming in water back when she was a teenager. They all knew not to swim there because it had reeds in the bottom but they went anyway. She said the boy jumped in and just didn’t come back up. He got caught up in the reeds and drowned. She got a right bollocking when she got home and her parents found out.

Yes bring back the service announcement.

Omg I remember this!! It scared the living daylights out of me!!

There are so many different sources now, when I was a child you had terrestrial TV.
The issue is now for every good warning/announcement you’ve got some idiot on TikTok/YouTube with “beginners hike in the Lake District - striding edge” making people think they can do whatever.
Im a pretty keen hiker/fell runner and I’ve seen people out and really struggling in completely inappropriate gear (wellies on rough ground, hoodies and jeans in wet weather etc). The issue is social media and until the outdoors influencer types actually start posting about how dangerous jumping into a giant body of cold water is, not just “oh look at this fab wild swimming spot” it will continue to happen

I agree with this. Most of them think they’re invincible. And that they know better than everyone else. I think there should definitely be a huge effort to get the information across to them, but sadly I believe most of those who want to take the risk won’t let a wagging finger from some boring adult put them off.

I look back with horror at some of the utterly stupid risks I took as a teenage girl and I would call myself pretty risk averse overall.