Dick Durham's blog
Web log entry dated 14 February 2008
Baywatching
Last year RNLI-employed beach-based lifeguards: 'aided 9,505 people, but also performed 573,192 preventative actions, including safety warnings and advice on local hazards, which will have prevented many more incidents.'
This is stirring stuff, but I have been asked what on earth was meant by a 'preventative action'? I asked Kelly Keating, acting Beach Safety Manager for the RNLI.
She told me: 'It is moving the red and yellow flags, assessing the beach, telling people not to go swimming... all the day-to-day minor but essential things apart from First Aid or actual rescue.'
The reader also asked me: 'Who is counting these preventative actions?'
Kelly told me: 'The lifeguards, they fill in a daily log.'
Nice work if you can get it.
Dick Durham
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