Advice

Drowning prevention: are the safety devices effective?

20 November 2020

Drowning prevention: effective or very little safety features

Drowning is the second most common cause of accidental death among children in France since 1990. Most drownings occur in swimming pools and are preventable. But can drowning prevention be based solely on technical safety devices? Answer.

Drowning prevention: two types of existing devices

There are two types of drowning prevention devices that could help prevent drowning:

– the first one is to keep a person afloat in the water

– the second is to sound the alarm when a person falls into the water

However, no device can guarantee that drowning will never occur.

1. The life jacket

A lifejacket is probably the best protective device to use to prevent accidental drowning. But how many people do you see wearing them at the beach or in the pools? And even with a life jacket, a person could get stuck on their stomach in the water and drown.

2. Alarms to prevent drowning: the example of the pool and the cell phone

Pool alarms can be very effective as an alert sounds when motion is detected in the water. Drownings take only a few seconds. Pool alarms take at least 20 seconds to go off. Pool owners ignore them or turn them off. Unconsciousness can occur within 2 minutes and brain damage within 5 minutes, so time is of the essence.

On the other hand, wrist alarms connected to the cell phone ring when the wearer enters the water. These devices will not work unless they are worn and children (who are usually the ones who need them) have been known to remove them.

And you, would you place all your trust in these devices?

Knowing how to swim is undoubtedly the best way to prevent drowning
. It is essential to ensure that everyone in your family learns to swim, and that you have done everything possible to eliminate the risk of a drowning death. But this is still not a guarantee.

A person who knows how to swim may pass out in the water, get a drink, be too tired to get to shore, or have a heart attack in the pool.

And because unusual circumstances can quickly overwhelm everyone, from young children to experienced adult swimmers, it is important for everyone to always follow safety rules.