Beach patrol not responsible for swimmer safety: government

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This article was published 03/08/2016 (3444 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Parents, not beach patrollers, are responsible for guarding the lives of children swimming at Grand Beach.

The government department responsible for the beach patrol wants it known that swimmers are responsible for their own safety at provincial beaches. Beach patrol members, easily spotted in their distinctive yellow shirts as they walk the shores of provincial swimming areas, provide education and prevention training, but are not lifeguards.

“Over the years, the basic premise of the program has remained unchanged. Individuals are responsible for themselves, their families and groups while on provincial park beaches. We encourage families to keep children within arms’ reach while at the beach,” said a prepared statement from the province’s sustainable development department.

Two children who drowned at Grand Beach on Monday evening are being mourned by Winnipeg’s Filipino community. They were identified Wednesday as Jhonalyn Javier, 11, and David Medina, 12. A parent was watching the children in the water but apparently lost sight of them.

Medina came to Canada from the Philippines in November 2014, while Javier arrived in August 2015, according to a post on Facebook. Before she came to Canada, Javier received a certificate of recognition from her elementary school in the Philippines. According to her Facebook profile, Javier was like any other 11-year-old girl: she loved Barbie, Disney princesses, the Disney movie “Frozen” and was a fan of pop stars Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande.

Viewings for both children will take place Saturday evening at Mosaic Funeral Home on Inkster Boulevard. The service will be held Sunday.

“Let’s extend our condolences, prayers and financial assistance to the bereaved families,” said a posting on Facebook.

Sustainable Development Minister Cathy Cox, responsible for Manitoba’s parks and beaches, was on government business in the Norway House area on Wednesday and was unavailable for comment about the role of beach patrols.

Her department said in a statement that only three beaches — Grand Beach, Winnipeg Beach, and Birds Hill — have beach patrols.

There were 12 beach patrol members on duty at Grand Beach at the time of Monday’s tragedy, two below the maximum. The last drowning at Grand Beach was in 1990, said provincial officials.

“Department staff extend their sincerest sympathies to the families dealing with this tragedy,” said the statement.

“The Beach Safety Program in Manitoba provincial parks is primarily focused on public water safety education. Safety measures provided at 83 provincial park beaches include signage, beach safety brochures, buoy lines, and risk management planning.

The province said that an inquest about 25 years ago recommended against providing lifeguard services because ratios of swimmers to lifeguards would be impossible to meet on a beach with hundreds or even thousands of swimmers.

“The public have a misconception that we are providing lifeguard services, like at a local swimming pool. We can’t do that,” said Bruce Bremner, regional parks manager for the Eastman and Whitehsell regions, in 1990.

While beach safety officer staff rates vary by beach and time period, peak staffing rates are currently a maximum of 20 staff at Birds Hill, 14 staff at Grand Beach; and nine staff at Winnipeg Beach.

“There are a total of 44 total beach safety officers employed at Birds Hill Provincial Park, and 42 beach safety officers at Grand Beach and Winnipeg Beach,” said the province. “The department manages resources at these three locations to maximize coverage where it’s significantly needed. Factors include high volumes of visitation; as well, Lake Winnipeg locations experience rapidly-changing weather conditions, strong winds, wave action, currents and variable water depth which can pose dangerous situations for swimming and other activities.”

“Beach safety officers have a strong focus on prevention and education, providing information to families that can be used not only at the one site, but as they visit other bodies of water as well,” the province said. “The Beach Safety Program predominantly focuses on the following public education messaging:

— swimming is unsupervised

— be responsible

— watch your children

— know your limits

— beach safety officers talk to the public if their activities have the potential to develop into hazardous situations.

During summer 2015, beach safety officers provided 8,000 reminders to parents or supervisors to be within arm’s reach of or in close proximity to their children; advised visitors to not swim past or hang on to buoy line 655 times; retrieved swimmers on inflatables who were being pushed from the shoreline by off-shore winds 204 times; and provided kayak response to swimmers 342 times.

While the number of water rescues is an important statistic, the province said Wednesday the preventative activities and interventions prevent incident rates from being much higher.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca

History of beach safety

A former lifeguard's warning about drowning danger at Grand Beach seems tragically accurate after the deaths of two children on Monday. In 1971, R.T. Ransom, identified as an ex-lifeguard, wrote a letter to the editor calling Grand Beach a death trap.

"If you drown in Grand Beach you will be this type of person: You will be young, but not too young. You will be between the ages of eight and 18, more than likely at the 'Mommy I can do it myself,' stage."He noted the places for the worst currents were at the channel by the third lifeguard tower and at the other end "under the noses of people in the hotel.

"His public warnings seemed eerily percipient after a 12-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl drowned on Monday at Grand Beach. One parent was watching the children when they apparently slipped out of sight.

The issue of water safety at provincial swimming sites has often been the subject of Free Press stories.