It just not the number of people, who flock to sun-baked British beaches which has seen an unprecedented increase, with it the chances of getting drowned at British beaches have also gone up many folds. Courtesy poor rescue equipment and lack of lifeguards at the U.K. beaches.
The shocking issue came to light when new statistics were released. The findings say that British beaches are increasing becoming dangerous places. The statistics says that there were 681 deaths in 2005 and out of them 435 were due to drowning. Most of these deaths occurred near beaches and many of them could have been avoided had these beaches been better equipped to tackle emergency cases.
Peter Cornall, leisure safety manager at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Rospa), said: A lot of beaches have not got the right gear and the people that run our beaches need to carry out proper risk assessments.
Safety experts do believe that by cutting down on the number lifeguard, the authorities have exposed swimmers and surfers to the high risk that eventually jeopardize their lives. In fact advancement in wetsuit technology has encouraged more surfers to enjoy themselves on beaches and the global warming has also compelled more people to flock to beaches earlier than usual. In such scenario there is high need to have more lifeguards to keep a vigil rather then trimming their numbers.
Though there is no legal obligation for councils to pay for lifeguards but the pressure is mounting on them to make British beaches safe.
Source: Independent
