Lifesaver’s plea after latest drowning
‘Don’t over-estimate your ability and under-estimate the conditions’
Lifeguards are pleading with people to swim in patrolled areas after eight waterrelated deaths in the past four days.
New Zealand’s drowning toll this year passed 100 yesterday after a man died near Tolaga Bay on the North Island’s east coast.
That compares with 90 for the whole of 2014.
“We are very concerned about what’s happening,” said Allan Mundy, Surf Lifesaving New Zealand’s lifesaving services and education manager. “It’s simply down to the weather conditions at the moment, which are ideal. The water’s really warm. Lots of people have gone on holiday.”
Mr Mundy encouraged people heading into the water to do so in patrolled areas. Within these, lifeguards last year carried out more than 400,000 “preventive actions”, such as moving people out of developing rips. That wouldn’t happen in unpatrolled areas.
Mr Mundy said anyone who got into trouble in the water should try to relax, not swim against a rip, and put their hand up.
Doing that “international sign of distress” gave others a chance to see
what was happening and alert authorities.
“Don’t over-estimate your ability and under-estimate the conditions.”
Since Christmas Day, seven people have drowned, including four on Christmas day, and 12-year-old Jack Martin was killed on Boxing Day when he was riding an inflatable sea biscuit and was hit by a passing vessel on Blue Lake in Central Otago.
Yesterday, a 50-year-old local was free-diving at the private Puatai Beach near Gisborne when he was caught in a rip just after 2pm.
His family were trying to revive him on rocks when the Eastland Rescue Helicopter arrived.
Pilot Neil Dodds said he hovered overhead and let two emergency workers out, before landing nearby. By that time, the man had died.
“He was diving with a party of four, who were friends and family. They were the ones who helped him on to the rocks and proceeded to do CPR. When they found him, he was in an unconscious state. [The emergency workers] did a good job but, unfortunately, with a negative result, which we all struggle with.”
A St John spokesman said the man’s companions lost sight of him, and his body washed on to the beach. He was not wearing a wetsuit.
Yesterday morning, the body of a young man was recovered from the surf at Mt Maunganui. Police believe he was a 22-year-old foreigner who had been living in New Zealand for some time.
On Boxing Day, as well as the seabiscuit death, an 82-year-old British woman drowned at Opito Bay in the Bay of Islands when she returned home from a walk, suffered a medical event and fell into a pond.
Four people drowned on Christmas Day, including 3-year-old Jimmy Laulu. He died in a lagoon at Ocean Beach in Hawkes Bay and yesterday, at his funeral, was described by his mother as a “little angel”.
A foreign pair drowned at a beach near Raglan, and Whanganui 17-year- old Jordon James Marshall succumbed after being caught in a rip at Castecliff Beach.
There have also been several lucky escapes around the country.
On Sunday night, the Auckland Westpac rescue helicopter flew a 19-year-old man to hospital in a serious condition after he was caught in a rip while swimming at Piha.
Later in the evening, the chopper was called to Maraetai Beach, where a 15-year-old girl was in a serious condition after she struggled to keep her head above water while out swimming.