Beahc Safety
Beach Safety - Dart Lifeboats
Beach safety and the RNLI Education Team
This is the time of year that the Education team from the Dart lifeboat station have been taking their Beach Safety message out to the local schools. This year all the children in the local Dartmouth, Stoke Fleming, Blackawton, and for the first time East Allington, primary schools have attended lessons in their schools given by the team.
It was intended to roll out the area covered to Totnes next year but one of their schools believes that the safety messages are so relevant that they want to be covered this year as well. The team is also going to the Dartmouth Academy to talk to all the students in Year 7.
If you have children or grandchildren from the schools they should hopefully be able to tell you how the mnemonic SAFE helps to keep them safe on the beach.
Spot the dangers
Always go with a friend or an adult you know
Find the beach safety signs
In an Emergency put up your hand, wave and shout
These days the children are very good at recognising the meaning of the different lifeguard flags. It is safe to swim between the red and yellow flags and the lifeguards are on duty. They take them down when they leave the beach, usually around 5pm.
The black and white chequered flags indicate the area for surfers and non powered craft, such as sea canoes. The red flag obviously means do not enter the water however good a swimmer you are. The children often are unsure where they can use their body boards but they are fine in the red and yellow flagged swimmers’ area.
There are RNLI designed Beach safety signs on most main beaches now. As well as telling you where you are and where the nearest emergency telephone point is, they warn of the specific dangers to look out for on that particular beach.
You are 500 times less likely to drown on a lifeguarded beach so we always recommend that people chose a lifeguarded beach and swim between the red and yellow flags. The vast majority of the work of the lifeguards is in taking preventative action but on the South Hams beaches there were 609 incidents last year and 696 people were assisted.
Problems arise when swimmers are swept out in a rip tide that suddenly develops. If this happens to you swim parallel to the beach until you are out of the current and before heading for the shore. Do not be afraid to shout for help if you are not making progress.
The other main problem area is with inflatables being swept out to sea. Do not use them if the wind is offshore, even though the sea looks flat and inviting. The safest plan is for an inflatable with children in it to be tethered to an adult on the shore.
For up to date news of the Dart lifeboat please visit the local web site of www.dartlifeboat.org.uk (where news of recent launches as well as social events can be found).
John Fenton.
Dart RNLI Lifeboat Education volunteer
01803 770761
First published July 2011 By the Dart