It has been a strange weekend!
On Friday night an incident occurred in the swimming pool at one of my local leisure Centres within my Council area - one I know quite well.
Unfortunately and sadly a young 20 year old man died in the local hospital a short time later.
Now at this stage as you would expect - details are pretty thin on the ground but my thoughts go to the family and of course the staff. The centre at time of writing was still closed.
What prompted this article was "local" reaction to the incident.
I have been involved in Drowning Prevention since the early 80's when I first donned a whistle and lifeguard uniform (along with very uncomfortable flip flops).
I first installed Drowning Prevention Technology (DPT) in the swimming pool at the local leisure centre on which I project managed the build for the Council in 2001 (it has since been switched off)
I became involved in "selling" DPT in 2008 before finally forming Poolview Limited in partnership with Paul Brown late 2012.
My personal Facebook page is "littered" with warning posts I share following a tragedy, fatality, near miss etc.
So it's fair to say locally I would be known as the guy whose specialist subject on "Mastermind" would be drowning prevention!
Now to the point!
No matter what occurs around the UK in terms of a drowning or near miss - it is only on a very very rare occasion that someone will make comment to me about the tragedy.
Over the weekend, I have had more texts, phone calls and emails about this one incident, that occurred in a pool which is a 30 minute drive away, than I have had in the preceding 9 years!
So is it "Out of sight - out of mind?"
It is probably like much that goes on in the world today - it's only when it happens closer to home that people "sit up and take notice!"
In parts of the UK - amongst senior management - attitude to drowning is frighteningly relaxed - i.e. We have never had one! All the more worrying when the poor TA is pulling their hair out because of horrendous glare problems - but no-one listens!
This week I was talking to a local authority who are spending in excess of £30million on a new swimming pool and leisure centre - not only will they not even consider the use of DPT - they WON'T even future proof the pool by installing a couple of thousand pounds worth of camera niches!
There is no doubt the "Early Adopters" are blazing a trail here, but my goodness the "Laggards" can be so frustrating with their blinkered views and "not in my backyard" thinking.
As I said - a strange weekend!
