Three kids drown at a waterfall in Nakhon Si Thammarat

NAKHON SI THAMMARAT: -- Three young cousins drowned after they went swimming at a waterfall in Ronpibooon district of Nakhon Si Thammarat on Sunday.

The 15-year old sister of one of the three victims, a five-year old girl, told the Ronpiboon police that the three children – two girls, aged five and eight and a seven-year old boy – who were cousins went biking together after they were given 20 baht to buy sweets.

She said that the three children were gone for unusually long hours prompting her to get worried and started to look for them at a nearby klong.

After failing to locate any of them, she later went to the Mae Sethi waterfall which is not far away and found their bicycles. She then proceeded to a pool at the waterfall where three bodies were found.

The mother of one of the victims said the three kids never ventured to the waterfall before. She suspected that the unusually hot weather might have driven the three kids to cool themselves at the waterfall totally unaware that the pool there is deep.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/three-kids-drown-at-a-waterfall-in-nakhon-si-thammarat


-- Thai PBS 2015-03-23

Heart-breaking. There's nothing more to say.

Heart-breaking. There's nothing more to say.

It is heart breaking, but there is more to say.

Sounds like the children could not swim - a common problem with Thai people.

Thai people need to recognise the problem (and realise that intervention actually works, it's not up to the gods), organise, have pools built and children taught to swim!!

2600 Thai children drown each year!!

This carnage is largely preventable.

Unfortunately Thai children are not taught to swim as part of thier education,as we are in most western countries,mainly from what i can see due to a lack of public pools,which are of course expensive to build and maintain,and i suppose would be seen by the authorities as having little benefit,it s really only around the coast where a larger proportion of people can actually swim,still a tragic story.

Heart-breaking. There's nothing more to say.

It is heart breaking, but there is more to say.

Sounds like the children could not swim - a common problem with Thai people.

Thai people need to recognise the problem (and realise that intervention actually works, it's not up to the gods), organise, have pools built and children taught to swim!!

2600 Thai children drown each year!!

This carnage is largely preventable.

We have thrown our bit in as our private school has a swimming pool and we give swimming lessons twice a week. After a short while they are like 'ducks to water'!!

Breaks your Heart to read it - I am tempted to claim that thai-parents are not capable of taking care of their children but that would be to stretch it (maybe)

2,600 children drown every year and it just goes on and on

Heart-breaking. There's nothing more to say.

Agree, heart-breaking.

Unfortunately Thai children are not taught to swim as part of thier education,as we are in most western countries,mainly from what i can see due to a lack of public pools,which are of course expensive to build and maintain,and i suppose would be seen by the authorities as having little benefit,it s really only around the coast where a larger proportion of people can actually swim,still a tragic story.

Not universally true. The school I taught at does teach them swimming.

Heart-breaking. There's nothing more to say.

It is heart breaking, but there is more to say.

Sounds like the children could not swim - a common problem with Thai people.

Thai people need to recognise the problem (and realise that intervention actually works, it's not up to the gods), organise, have pools built and children taught to swim!!

2600 Thai children drown each year!!

This carnage is largely preventable.

In a way I agree with you.

All it will take is large amounts of money and training a large number of sports/swimming teachers. Not to mention water and pool maintenance.

Where would you put the swimming pools and who would look after them especially in rural Thailand?

You would have to provide at least 4 teachers for 6 hours a day assuming 1 class of perhaps 40 pupils for a 1 hour lesson once a week. If the children have to go to a pool not at the school they will need to be taken by bus and you will need 2 buses to shuttle them, one for the first class at the pool and the other for the next class.

If they get an hour at the pool the actual time will be down to 45 of 50 minutes because of the changing times. Don't forget travelling times as well.

It is a great idea but it is also a great financial and logistical headache and certainly not one that I would want to solve.

If you figure 66,000,000 people live in Thailand there will be perhaps as many as 20,000,000 school, children perhaps less if the authorities are lucky that they will have to provide extras for and the costs before corruption will be horrendous.

I live in rural Thailand and the nearest "public" swimming pool is actually a private one at a resort some 15 km away where you can pay by the day

Heart-breaking. There's nothing more to say.

It is heart breaking, but there is more to say.

Sounds like the children could not swim - a common problem with Thai people.

Thai people need to recognise the problem (and realise that intervention actually works, it's not up to the gods), organise, have pools built and children taught to swim!!

2600 Thai children drown each year!!

This carnage is largely preventable.

We have thrown our bit in as our private school has a swimming pool and we give swimming lessons twice a week. After a short while they are like 'ducks to water'!!

You are fortunate that your school HAS a private pool but most public schools certainly in the smaller rural provinces don't have that sort of luck.

Just a note....1. If you're used to swimming in the sea, fresh water swimming can be a shock as it's harder to keep afloat.

2. I went with my neighbours to a pool for a swim. They are not rich, just middle class, and I was expecting to have to watch out for them. The 4 year old boy was confident and competent enough to follow me to the deep end by himself, every time. The 7 year old girl...well! She challenged me to race in every stroke known. She was even proficient at butterfly and underwater.

It was very nice to see that the kids parents had paid for swimming lessons, and the lessons had paid off.

Heart-breaking. There's nothing more to say.

It is heart breaking, but there is more to say.

Sounds like the children could not swim - a common problem with Thai people.

Thai people need to recognise the problem (and realise that intervention actually works, it's not up to the gods), organise, have pools built and children taught to swim!!

2600 Thai children drown each year!!

This carnage is largely preventable.

In a way I agree with you.

All it will take is large amounts of money and training a large number of sports/swimming teachers. Not to mention water and pool maintenance.

Where would you put the swimming pools and who would look after them especially in rural Thailand?

You would have to provide at least 4 teachers for 6 hours a day assuming 1 class of perhaps 40 pupils for a 1 hour lesson once a week. If the children have to go to a pool not at the school they will need to be taken by bus and you will need 2 buses to shuttle them, one for the first class at the pool and the other for the next class.

If they get an hour at the pool the actual time will be down to 45 of 50 minutes because of the changing times. Don't forget travelling times as well.

It is a great idea but it is also a great financial and logistical headache and certainly not one that I would want to solve.

If you figure 66,000,000 people live in Thailand there will be perhaps as many as 20,000,000 school, children perhaps less if the authorities are lucky that they will have to provide extras for and the costs before corruption will be horrendous.

I live in rural Thailand and the nearest "public" swimming pool is actually a private one at a resort some 15 km away where you can pay by the day

The temperature alone makes it considerably easier to learn to swim here that ever it was in our homelands prior to around 1970 when 'heated' (but still bloody freezing!) pools first made an appearance.

RIP to the deceased and to the 4 that died in similar circumstances elsewhere last week.

Just a note....1. If you're used to swimming in the sea, fresh water swimming can be a shock as it's harder to keep afloat.

2. I went with my neighbours to a pool for a swim. They are not rich, just middle class, and I was expecting to have to watch out for them. The 4 year old boy was confident and competent enough to follow me to the deep end by himself, every time. The 7 year old girl...well! She challenged me to race in every stroke known. She was even proficient at butterfly and underwater.

It was very nice to see that the kids parents had paid for swimming lessons, and the lessons had paid off.

And obviously, there's at least one good swimming instructor in this city 25 kms from the sea and with no public pools.

It can be done.

The Thai kids have no chance for the parents to teach them to swim. Usually the father is smashed by noon, and the mother is too busy working 15 hours a day.

Such sad news. sympathy for the families... Sadly another, issue for water safety classes.