Tragedy of teenagers drowning in summer wild swimming is frequent. Experts urge to build a water safety net.
□ Our reporter Zhao Li
□ Our trainee reporter Sun Tianjiao
"All four boys drowned, and the cries of their families resounded through the whole mountain forest."
Lao Yang, the captain of a blue sky rescue team in Jiangxi, still remembers a teenager drowning accident. That summer vacation, several primary school students went to play by the reservoir far away from the city. One of them accidentally slipped while washing his hands by the reservoir. The other three rushed to pull him, but they didn’t pull him, and all four fell into the water. Lao Yang and others rushed to the scene after receiving the report, which was close to 12 o’clock in the middle of the night.
The tragedy of teenagers drowning in summer has been staged frequently in recent years. According to the statistics of public reports, the reporter of "Rule of Law Daily" found that there have been dozens of drowning incidents among teenagers since June this year.
According to the data released by China CDC in 2021, drowning is the first killer of accidental death of primary and secondary school students. Every year, more than 80% of young people drown in open water.
A number of industry insiders interviewed by reporters analyzed that the water temperature in these waters is usually lower than one meter, and people are prone to cramping and losing control in the water. In addition, aquatic plants, garbage bags, ropes and branches at the bottom of the water are all "invisible killers". Once people are entangled, it is difficult to get away and lead to drowning. It is suggested to speed up the construction of an all-round and multi-angle drowning prevention mechanism and work together to build a "safety net" in waters.
Wild swimming has hidden risks
Frequent drowning accidents
On July 7, a child drowning accident occurred in the urban area of Hezuo City, Gannan Prefecture, Gansu Province, and five people had no vital signs after being rescued. On July 4, several teenagers in Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province were swimming by the river, and the two lost contact in drowning; On July 3, a 10-year-old boy from Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province fell into the water and unfortunately drowned … …
In just one week, several incidents of drowning and drowning of teenagers occurred in many places, which was distressing.
It is worth noting that the reporter found out that most of these drowning incidents occurred in open waters in the wild, and some even occurred in waters where swimming was explicitly prohibited.
Su Shaojun, head of the search and rescue team of Shanxi Blue Sky Rescue Team, has participated in two drowning rescue operations this year, all of which resulted in the drowning of teenagers swimming in waters where swimming is prohibited. In his view, some teenagers are "newborn calves are not afraid of tigers" and have blind confidence in their swimming level. Even if parents repeatedly tell them to pay attention to safety, they should go against their parents out of rebellious psychology. In addition, there is a lack of awareness of the risk of unknown waters, which is equivalent to the still water of swimming pools. When encountering unexpected situations after launching, people panic and increase the risk of drowning.
Sun Minjie, deputy head of the Water Rescue Team of Shanxi Blue Sky Rescue Team, has participated in hundreds of water rescue operations. According to him, if there is drowning, 95% of the drowning people have lost their vital signs when rescuers arrive at the scene, and there are few survivors. "The probability of drowning people living is very small."
"Ordinary people will basically lose consciousness when they are in the water for more than 10 minutes, and the falling point often occurs in some unknown rivers and lakes in the suburbs. It will take some time for rescuers to get to the scene. Fortunately, drowning was successfully rescued within 5 minutes, but there is still a 70% probability of irreversible brain damage. " Wang Yue, captain of Binhe Road Fire Rescue Station of Taiyuan City Fire Rescue Detachment, Shanxi Province, told the reporter that his team successfully rescued the drowning people only twice, or because they happened to be practicing in the nearby waters, and someone rescued them in time after calling the police.
A number of interviewed industry insiders said that swimming in unknown waters may also encounter whirlpool, which requires superb swimming skills to break free, but most young people who swim wild have not received professional training. In addition, the soil condition on the shore of the water area without control is complicated, and a large number of pedestrians will easily fall into the water after forming soft bunkers, while the water temperature below one meter in the wild waters is low, which will easily lead to the drowning person cramping and losing control of his body. Moreover, the underwater situation of wild waters is unknown, and aquatic plants, garbage bags, ropes and branches are all "invisible killers", so it is difficult for drowning people to break free once they are entangled.
Su Shaojun was deeply impressed by a rescue. A primary school class organized students and parents to attend a bonfire party by the reservoir, during which a football fell into the reservoir, and a student went into the water to pick it up, but it happened to be at the reservoir dam. The reservoir on the mountain was releasing water, and the water flow was extremely fast. As soon as the student got into the water, it was immediately washed away, and the sediment, weeds and other debris at the bottom of the water entangled it and could not surface. Rescuers use sonar to detect underwater, but sonar only displays pictures of debris when it encounters aquatic plants and other debris during detection, which is extremely difficult to search and rescue. Finally, the students who died were salvaged ashore on the 8 th day.
Multi-measures to prevent drowning
Be wary of managing blind spots
The danger of drowning and the extremely low survival rate make it very important to prevent wild swimming and launching without permission. In recent years, in order to prevent drowning in summer, not only warning signs have been set up, but also propaganda and patrol supervision have been strengthened, and early warning and reward systems have been introduced one after another.
For example, education department of guangxi collated the data of drowning incidents in the whole region for many years, established a database of drowning risk points for primary and middle school students in Guangxi, formed a warning map of drowning risk points for primary and middle school students in Guangxi, and announced it to the public.
The Education and Sports Bureau of Meishan City, Sichuan Province issued the system of "Early Warning Reward for Private Launching". If it is verified, 100 yuan, the first early warning person, will be given a prepaid phone fee reward. All the primary school students involved in the early warning who are verified to be true will be disqualified and included in the comprehensive quality evaluation files of primary and secondary school students.
According to Kou Liping, a professor at the School of Public Security of the People’s Public Security University of China and director of the Public Security Emergency Police Teaching and Research Section, the greatest significance of linking prevention of drowning with rewards and punishments is to mobilize the whole society to participate in the prevention of juvenile drowning through rewards, so as to form a general environment for the whole society to jointly prevent juvenile drowning, strengthen supervision on the social level of juvenile safety, and weave a dense social prevention and control network.
"The drowning prevention education for young people is also advancing with the times." Su Shaojun said that in the past, people were always reminded to pay attention to prevention, not to go to the water and not to swim in the wild. Now they have joined the education and training on the knowledge of calling for help and rescue. In addition, a content is specially added for teenagers, that is, if a companion falls into the water, don’t panic or be afraid, reduce the risk to a controllable range, call the police in time, and don’t run home and miss the rescue opportunity for fear of being severely criticized.
However, while taking measures to strengthen prevention, rescuers and experts are also concerned about the blind spot of adolescent drowning prevention and control.
Su Shaojun, for example, said that when the waters are wide and long, even if more managers are added, the phenomenon of swimming in the forbidden waters cannot be eliminated. Managers can only advise and have no right to forcibly stop or expel them. And some remote waters just put up warning signs, which can’t play a strong binding role. Many schools also do not have the ability to train swimming skills.
In addition, he is also concerned that parental supervision, as a key link to prevent children from drowning, is often "off the chain", and there is a certain gap between the "pay attention to safety" that parents often exhort and the "pay attention to safety" that children can understand and accept. In fact, it is difficult for children to fully realize where the danger is.
Kou Liping also pointed out that at present, the level of youth safety education is generally weak, schools, society and families have not formed an effective and intuitive publicity and education system, and many safety education are superficial and formal. In addition, the lack of safe hydrophilic environment and summer conditions, and the lack of summer entertainment activities that can attract young people have also caused many young people to choose wild swimming and have an accident.
Close combination of plugging and dredging
Prevent drowning
So, how should we build an all-round and multi-angle drowning prevention mechanism?
According to Chen Meng, a member of china law society Administrative Law Research Association and director of the Professional Committee of Administrative Law and Administrative Procedure Law of Beijing Lawyers Association, preventing teenagers from drowning depends on both "blocking" and "dredging". "Sparse" should focus on the causes of drowning, and take corresponding measures from four aspects: family education, school education, lack of social management responsibility and government administrative planning’s lack of attention to the construction of safe waters in economically underdeveloped areas along the Yangtze River, rivers and seas.
"Parents or other guardians of minors should enhance the legal responsibilities of guardians and raise their awareness of outdoor safety protection. The school’s safety education class can’t be a mere formality. It should be equipped with professional swimming coaches to teach students life safety rescue knowledge and swimming skills. " Chen Meng said.
Chen Meng also mentioned that residents’ committees and villagers’ committees should assist the relevant government departments to supervise the care entrusted by minors. If they find that the entrusted person lacks care ability and is lazy in performing care duties, they should report to the relevant government departments in time and inform the parents or other guardians of minors to help and urge the entrusted person to perform care duties. At the same time, people’s governments at all levels should create conditions to establish and improve venues and facilities suitable for minors’ cultural life.
Kou Liping suggested establishing a systematic youth safety education system, scientifically evaluating the risks that teenagers may face, introducing standards for safety education for minors, and exploring safety education methods that meet the psychological and behavioral characteristics of teenagers. We will promote the summer planning of teenagers with multiple interactions among family, school and society, so as to ensure that the summer vacation is arranged and safe.
Regarding the protection measures for water areas, Kou Liping believes that physical defense is mainly used to prevent teenagers from entering the water unattended or slipping into the water due to playing near the water, such as setting isolation railings, buffer belts and warning signs. It is also possible to conduct full coverage prevention and control, real-time monitoring and dynamic early warning of the waters through personnel patrols and drone patrols, so as to prevent young people from entering the waters at the first time.
If an accident does happen, accidentally falling into the water or drowning while swimming, Wang Yue said, first of all, try to stay calm and try to make your face face up; Don’t stretch your hands and arms to the top of your head, because it is easier to cause your body to fall down with your arms up, just put them on your sides. Keep a stable breathing frequency, shallow breathing and deep breathing, so as to increase your buoyancy and wait for rescue.
"We should tell minors not to organize rescue by themselves when they find their companions falling into the water, because they don’t have the rescue ability, and don’t take the hand-in-hand rescue method. Once this step-by-step rescue method fails, it is easy for everyone to fall. Seek the help of the adults around you for the first time and call the police in time." Wang Yue said.