Public urged to help prevent drowning accidents

[webfact]

Public urged to help prevent drowning accidents

SAMUT PRAKAN, 5 April 2016 (NNT) – Samut Prakan Province is asking parents and the general public to be vigilant for drowning incidents among children, says vice governor.

Samut Prakan Vice Governor Tanu Boonlert is calling upon local authorities and community leaders to promote vigilance among the general public to help prevent the dangers of drowning, especially among children, as Samut Prakan is a province with a high number of drowning incidents.

Warning signs and life preserving instruments such as life vests, flotation devices, and warning devices such as whistles or bells will be made available at areas such as public ponds. Officials will be placed on standby at all public swimming locations and tourism attractions to ensure safety.

Schools are encouraged to provide swimming classes and teach proper rescue techniques to children aged 5 years or more. Meanwhile, a regulation on ponds excavation will place security concerns as one of the major factors of consideration.

Findings show that Thailand's drowning cases were 5 to 15 times higher than the cases in developed countries.

Drowning is also the most common cause of death among youth aged 15, which is twice the rate of fatalities caused from road accidents.

Cases of youths drowning occurred as numerous as 1,420 times annually, with most incidents found in the Northeastern region, followed by the Central, Northern, and Southern regions respectively.


-- NNT 2016-04-05

[bheard]

Public urged to help prevent drowning accidents

SAMUT PRAKAN, 5 April 2016 (NNT) – Samut Prakan Province is asking parents and the general public to be vigilant for drowning incidents among children, says vice governor.

Samut Prakan Vice Governor Tanu Boonlert is calling upon local authorities and community leaders to promote vigilance among the general public to help prevent the dangers of drowning, especially among children, as Samut Prakan is a province with a high number of drowning incidents.

Warning signs and life preserving instruments such as life vests, flotation devices, and warning devices such as whistles or bells will be made available at areas such as public ponds. Officials will be placed on standby at all public swimming locations and tourism attractions to ensure safety.

Schools are encouraged to provide swimming classes and teach proper rescue techniques to children aged 5 years or more. Meanwhile, a regulation on ponds excavation will place security concerns as one of the major factors of consideration.

Findings show that Thailand's drowning cases were 5 to 15 times higher than the cases in developed countries.

Drowning is also the most common cause of death among youth aged 15, which is twice the rate of fatalities caused from road accidents.

Cases of youths drowning occurred as numerous as 1,420 times annually, with most incidents found in the Northeastern region, followed by the Central, Northern, and Southern regions respectively.

-- NNT 2016-04-05

These official figures are horrifying enough, almost 4 children per day drowning in Thailand. However international authorities show the number of drowning deaths is closer to 7 children per day.

Parents of Thailand - please step up and stop this!

[MilesofSmiles]

Teach children to swim.

Problem solved.

[cardinalblue]

Here is the problem - does Thailand have enough qualified swimming teachers to handle the child population?

It's the same problem with traffic enforcement..the country lacks a competent knowledge base of teachers/enforcers...

[trogers]

Here is the problem - does Thailand have enough qualified swimming teachers to handle the child population?

It's the same problem with traffic enforcement..the country lacks a competent knowledge base of teachers/enforcers...

Thailand does have enough qualified swimming instructors but not enough public swimming pools...

Thus, the use of public ponds...

[tuanku]

Swimming [non] ability is part of the problem, but the main issue is [lack of] parental supervision. Now school is out there are daily groups of 6 to 11 year old children playing and swimming in the klong near my house with not an adult in sight. Parents do not see it as part of their responsibility to make sure their children are safe!

[JAG]

We had this same debate a few weeks ago.

The Teacher Training Institutions are churning out teachers, why not make teaching children to swim part of the syllabus.

A very small part of the huge amount of money wasted or "lost" in the education budget could provide facilities - it's not as if pools would need to be heated or indoors. ..

[Khon Kaen Dave]

Of course i would do it,but in reality,why the hell should i? are there no 'life guards' trained and able to cope with the situations that might occur? If i'm out with my kids for a day at the water,i want to be keeping an eye on my own kids,not watching everybody else's.Why should the onus be on me to be looking out for physco kids that want to drown 11 year old girl's.

NO! pay for training of people to do this job.Set up lessons teaching kids and adult Thais to actually learn to swim.They slate us and hate us so much,but i bet that would become all thank you's and you good man,if you pulled one their chldren from the water,and saved their life because daddy Somchai was incapable of doing so.

Every child should be taught to swim at school,i know i was.

[cardinalblue]

Then where are all these instructors? Obviously they are not at the schools teaching every child to swim...

Blaming the lack of pools is the too simplified answer...can they not swim in the ocean rivers canals etc? Teach them where they live...

My three years at a bkk nursing school, their pool was closed because a nursing student had drowned the previous year...talk about short - sighted thinking!

Too easy to blame the lack of pools; there is no swim culture here nor desire to learn how to do survival swimming...treading water proper floating water rescue not wearing full attire etc....

Just lets all jump in and worry about the consequences later....another activity w/o a safety factor built into the equation...

Edited April 5, 2016 by cardinalblue

[Speedo1968]

Schools, even with swimming pools, the children still don't learn how to swim.

Unfortunately the rainy season will cause more unnecessary deaths.

Often the fear of parents for their children in the water leads to children being afraid of the water.

Yes, more qualified / or proven ability swimming teachers at the schools needed.

[HLover]

Don't let kids swim with that boy that threw those girls in the water and stomped on their hands when they tried to get out of the water.

[Thian]

Of course i would do it,but in reality,why the hell should i? are there no 'life guards' trained and able to cope with the situations that might occur? If i'm out with my kids for a day at the water,i want to be keeping an eye on my own kids,not watching everybody else's.Why should the onus be on me to be looking out for physco kids that want to drown 11 year old girl's.

NO! pay for training of people to do this job.Set up lessons teaching kids and adult Thais to actually learn to swim.They slate us and hate us so much,but i bet that would become all thank you's and you good man,if you pulled one their chldren from the water,and saved their life because daddy Somchai was incapable of doing so.

Every child should be taught to swim at school,i know i was.

On Samui i rescued daddy Somchais life, i carried him out of the sea because he yelled "Hey you" to me while he was drawning. He was lucky i listened to that yell because normally i don't.

He couldn't swim at all and thought he could go playing the waves like i did.

Thai mothers don't like to swim, they only sit under a tree and play with the cellphone. The fathers only want to drink usually.

[Jonmarleesco]

The problem is that Thais' approach to water safety is the same as their approach to safety in every other area: mai pen rai.