Three girls drown in pond in Chaiyaphum

[webfact]

Picture: Sanook

 

Tragedy struck in the sub-district of Non Kok in Chaiyaphum on Saturday when three girls died in a pond in a field. 

 

They were Cream, aged 5, Fang, 6, and ten year old Pam. They all lived next door to each other and were relatives. 

 

They were found dead in a ten meter x five meter pond in a field behind their houses on Saturday evening. 

 

Former phoo yai ban and grandfather of Cream, Buathong, 60, told Sanook that the children were playing in the street earlier in the day. 

 

But they went missing and a search was organized. 

 

A bucket was seen floating in the two meter deep pond and three pairs of shoes were found at the edge.

 

Their muddied bodies were then retrieved.

 

It is believed that the girls took the bucket to the pond to float in it but it overturned and in trying to help each other they all drowned. 

 

None of them could swim. 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2021-06-21

 

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[2long]

R.I.P. little ladies. ????

[mommysboy]

Tragic, awful, and criminally negligent.

[Cake Monster]

Very sad.

But an all too common occurrence here in Thailand.

Sleep with the Angels now little baby's.

[smedly]

10 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

Tragic, awful, and criminally negligent.

agree 100% 

 

RIP 3 little ones

 

Jail the parents

[colinneil]

Heart breaking story, yet not unusual here, parents do not seem to understand the dangers around ponds/ lakes.

Where were the parents, what the hell were they doing allowing children alone near water.

Three innocent little girls lives lost due to parent neglect, so sad.

R.I.P. little angels.

[Cake Monster]

3 minutes ago, smedly said:

agree 100% 

 

RIP 3 little ones

 

Jail the parents

The Parents are possibly not even living in the same Province, and away working to maintain the family.

These Children may well have been left for the Grand Parents to care for, as is the case with so many Thai Children.

What has happened , tragically has happened, and it will not bring back these Kids.

This is just one of the consequences of the Covid School Lockdowns.

Children play all day in the Streets and Fields, and this kind of Tragedy is bound to happen.

[4MyEgo]

2 minutes ago, colinneil said:

Heart breaking story, yet not unusual here, parents do not seem to understand the dangers around ponds/ lakes.

Where were the parents, what the hell were they doing allowing children alone near water.

Three innocent little girls lives lost due to parent neglect, so sad.

R.I.P. little angels.

 

I get so fricking angry when I read articles like this.

 

We moved here 6 years ago to give our kids the village life, imagining it to be something similar to when we grew up, that imagining came to an abrupt holt a month after we arrived as a kids body was see floating in the river opposite our place and found about half a kilometre down stream.

 

We feel guilty that we don't let them go out and about as other kids we see do, but then we hear about the motorbike that ran into and killed a kid walking home as the rider didn't see him on the street, then there was the car and so on and so forth, so we would rather live with the guilt of not letting them out as opposed to, it was our fault.

 

Such young precious angels gone so young, most Thai parents are too relaxed allowing kids young as this to venture off without keeping a keen eye on them, no doubt they will be feeling what I or any parent wouldn't want to be feeling now, so I won't go on the attack and just leave it as it is.  

[Saltire]

14 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

 

I get so fricking angry when I read articles like this.

 

We moved here 6 years ago to give our kids the village life, imagining it to be something similar to when we grew up, that imagining came to an abrupt holt a month after we arrived as a kids body was see floating in the river opposite our place and found about half a kilometre down stream.

 

We feel guilty that we don't let them go out and about as other kids we see do, but then we hear about the motorbike that ran into and killed a kid walking home as the rider didn't see him on the street, then there was the car and so on and so forth, so we would rather live with the guilt of not letting them out as opposed to, it was our fault.

 

Such young precious angels gone so young, most Thai parents are too relaxed allowing kids young as this to venture off without keeping a keen eye on them, no doubt they will be feeling what I or any parent wouldn't want to be feeling now, so I won't go on the attack and just leave it as it is.  

Couldn't agree more.

 

What a tragedy, and easy to avoid or at least reduce the risk.

 

The one that annoys me intensely, and I also give the 'neglect' tag, is proud parents/grandparents teaching kids as young as 10 to drive the family samlor/motorbike, and happy to let them an 4 or 5 pals joyride around the village every day. I see hunderds a day not including those going to and from school.

 

Later their young training, or lack of, will help them be a traffic accident statistic.

 

My village has streams winding around everywhere, currently they are running high and fast, and there have been 2 similar tragedies here over the last 3 years.

 

RIP

[FireMedic]

growing up in Florida with bodies of water around everywhere you go....lakes, ponds, fishing areas, swimming pools, etc.....it was almost expected that kids would learn how to swim as to not have so many downings. 

[userabcd]

1 hour ago, smedly said:

agree 100% 

 

RIP 3 little ones

 

Jail the parents

I'm sure the parents are devastated and are suffering by their loss and guilt over what has happened.

Edited June 21, 2021 by userabcd

[Darksidedude]

So sad this happens to often, Thais just dont understand how important it is to teach there kids to swim

[Arkady]

So sad. RIP little girls.

 

I have often asked the Thai family why, in a country with water everywhere and warm weather all the year round why there is not more emphasis from schools and parents to teach kids to swim. The wife just says there is a lack of funding for swimming pools etc.  Her family's solution was to forbid the kids to play in ponds around the house.  The wife obeyed and can barely swim as an adult now.  Her younger brother disobeyed and went off on his bike with friends to learn how to swim in dangerous ponds. 

 

My reply is that I went to a school in a cold climate and the school didn't have a pool either.  But for the two months a year that it was vaguely warm enough for swimming we ran about a mile to another school's swimming pool and ran back for the next class.  Every boy was taught to swim. If they wanted to prioritise water safety, the government could build more pools at schools and organise bussing for schools that don't have them.  But the sad answer is that they don't care. Their kids get taught to swim and poor kids drown. The natural order of things as far they are concerned.

[hotchilli]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

They were Cream, aged 5, Fang, 6, and ten year old Pam. They all lived next door to each other and were relatives

So sad... my condolences to those who deserve it.

 

[Moonlover]

4 hours ago, userabcd said:

I'm sure the parents are devastated and are suffering by their loss and guilt over what has happened.

Yes, just tad callous isn't it.

[Bangkok Barry]

Someone recently had a large pond dug not far from the back of our house, where she will raise fish after receiving a government grant. It's very deep and has very steep sides, and now I'm just waiting to see how long it will be before a kid will drown in it. No safety measures in place at all. None. To understand the dangers you have to have common sense, and that is entirely absent in Thailand.

[puchooay]

6 hours ago, mommysboy said:

Tragic, awful, and criminally negligent.

I agree it is awful and tragic.

 

I disagree that it is criminally negligent. 

 

The one part of village life that I love is how the kids can run around and play to their heart's consent. Usually safely.

 

Many of these ponds around in villages. Not just for rearing fish but also as a source of water for the house. They are often a necessity. 

 

Children are naturally inquisitive. No matter how many times they are told not to do something maybe, at sometime they will want to find out by themselves. The kids in the article were playing and an accident occurred. . How ever well they were being taken care of it would only have taken a split second of someone taking their eye off them.

 

Tragic and awful. RIP.

[DefaultName]

RIP.

As to all the negligence posts, I certainly ran around outside at those ages.  There was a strict "home by the time it gets dark" rule, but that was about it.  I don't remember any deaths, I do remember cuts, grazes, even broken bones.  No one cried negligence, it was just a part of growing up in the country.
Now, I'm very protective of kids, but I worry that they're missing out on the childhood that I had.

[Slain]

It's the same as road safety, no one seems to think about it until the accident happens. I remember in UK that only many years of government road safety adverts on TV cut down the amount of deaths and injury due to speeding and drink driving. 

[RobU]

When I was a child in England we also "played out" without supervision we were told not to do certain things which we often ignored, like swimming in the local land drain. Accidents will happen you should not keep children prisoners, they cannot be supervised all the time. It is tragic but I do not put any blame on the carers. R.I.P. babies a tragic accident.

[billd766]

4 hours ago, Darksidedude said:

So sad this happens to often, Thais just dont understand how important it is to teach there kids to swim

Who will teach the children to swim and where. A proper pool is necessary and a qualified swimming instructor or 3 for each group of say 5 children.

 

The nearest swimming pool available to me and the public here in rural Kamphaeng Phet is 15km away in a resort, and I cannot think where the next one is.

 

Sadly of course it has been closed for a long while due to Covid and doesn't have any qualified people working there anyway.

 

Ideally, each medium to large school should have one and swimming lessons should be compulsory. The problem is who will pay for a swimming pool and employ extra staff to man it and maintain it?

[rcuthbert]

Tragic.

My condolences to their loved ones.

[impulse]

7 hours ago, Darksidedude said:

So sad this happens to often, Thais just dont understand how important it is to teach there kids to swim

 

Teaching kids to swim is a double edge sword.  On one hand, it may save them.  OTOH, it may embolden them to water. 

 

And if you jump in a deep ditch with super slippery slope, all the swimming skills in the world won't save you when you can't claw your way up the slippery slope.  Eventually, you'll wear out and drown.

I'm in favor of teaching kids to swim, and more importantly, to not drown.  2 slightly different skills...  Drown proofing is more about not panicking.  Swimming is more about having fun.

 

If my parents made the equivalent of 300 baht a day, I doubt we'd have been taking swim lessons at the local swimming hole.  Has more to do with economic priorities than "understanding".  Just like scooters...  It's not as if Thai people prefer white knuckles and bugs in their teeth to a nice air conditioned car with seat belts, especially when hauling the kids to their swimming lessons.

 

Edited June 21, 2021 by impulse

[Tug]

11 hours ago, smedly said:

agree 100% 

 

RIP 3 little ones

 

Jail the parents

I disagree with jailing the parents I’m sure the parents are in a living hell rite now far beyond our comprehension perhaps making the kids water safe would be appropriate major bummer and my deepest condolences to the bereaved 

[richard_smith237]

9 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

Teaching kids to swim is a double edge sword.  On one hand, it may save them.  OTOH, it may embolden them to water. 

 

And if you jump in a deep ditch with super slippery slope, all the swimming skills in the world won't save you when you can't claw your way up the slippery slope.  Eventually, you'll wear out and drown.

I'm in favor of teaching kids to swim, and more importantly, to not drown.  2 slightly different skills...  Drown proofing is more about not panicking.  Swimming is more about having fun.

 

If my parents made the equivalent of 300 baht a day, I doubt we'd have been taking swim lessons at the local swimming hole.  Has more to do with economic priorities than "understanding".  Just like scooters...  It's not as if Thai people prefer white knuckles and bugs in their teeth to a nice air conditioned car with seat belts, especially when hauling the kids to their swimming lessons.

 

Agreed... the logistics of teaching kids in poor rural areas to swim is too costly too difficult. 

 

But, safety can still be taught in schools.... Water safety, Road safety are two key area’s which could make an impact. While they are at it, teach first aid and life saving skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[richard_smith237]

9 minutes ago, Tug said:

I disagree with jailing the parents I’m sure the parents are in a living hell rite now far beyond our comprehension perhaps making the kids water safe would be appropriate major bummer and my deepest condolences to the bereaved 

 

I agree, blaming the parents for a ‘cultural norm’ of letting young children go off and play is not the correct response.

 

I’m aghast at how any parent, career or supervising adult can allow such young children to play out of their sight, but that is because I have grown up being educated of the potential risks. 

 

 

These tragic events could be used to affect change, and educate people, but sadly, those in positions of decision making power are too far removed from any responsibility or accountability to lead any change. 

 

Where water safety, road safety and pretty much any safety is concerned change only starts when those in positions of decision making power are directly impacted - such is the moral compass of those in those positions empathy is nothing more than fleeting emotion soon overpowered by finical wellbeing.

 

Only when those in positions of decision making power are held financially accountable will things improve, such is the political landscape of Thailand. 

 

 

 

[Stargeezr]

Yes fellow posters, Thailand as a country is not rich as our countries. My Thai relatives can only afford

to come to Canada once every 5 years, and only if they get to stay with us, and take tours with us

as Canada is so much more expensive to stay at, live at, or enjoy the tourist sights.   The country people

who work on the farms are seldom the richest people in the country. Swimming pools and lessons sound

great, but do not forget the expense it take. The schools will not all build swimming pools either as 

that also takes extra money that the government will likely not be willing to part with.

Geezer

[GinBoy2]

On 6/21/2021 at 1:49 AM, Arkady said:

So sad. RIP little girls.

 

I have often asked the Thai family why, in a country with water everywhere and warm weather all the year round why there is not more emphasis from schools and parents to teach kids to swim. The wife just says there is a lack of funding for swimming pools etc.  Her family's solution was to forbid the kids to play in ponds around the house.  The wife obeyed and can barely swim as an adult now.  Her younger brother disobeyed and went off on his bike with friends to learn how to swim in dangerous ponds. 

 

My reply is that I went to a school in a cold climate and the school didn't have a pool either.  But for the two months a year that it was vaguely warm enough for swimming we ran about a mile to another school's swimming pool and ran back for the next class.  Every boy was taught to swim. If they wanted to prioritise water safety, the government could build more pools at schools and organise bussing for schools that don't have them.  But the sad answer is that they don't care. Their kids get taught to swim and poor kids drown. The natural order of things as far they are concerned.

I totally ditto this.

 

I, like I think most Westerners was taught to swim at a really early age.

 

Our son was born in Singapore and even in kindergarten he was taught to swim.

 

So when we moved to Thailand I was really shocked to find how few people can swim. It's not like most of us are olympic swimmers, but the majority of us can at least tread water and do an inelegant side stroke to get us out of danger.

 

These poor kiddies weren't in a riptide, fast flowing water, it was a pond.

 

Basic swim skills, and they would all have been alive today.

 

So sad, and so avoidable