Brockwell Lido

[Janie@eurolanresearc]

At Brockwell Park Lido this morning I witnessed a little girl drowning or nearly drowning (she was taken to hospital unconscious and I don't know what happened to her after that) and wondered if anyone else was there to discuss this with me and help me to decide on the appropriate action to take regarding the appalling lack of any sort of training it appeared the 2 lifeguards had received. I had spent Monday and Tuesday at the lido and the pool (olympic sized) was packed with people all day. there were only two lifeguards at any one time, and during yesterday and the day before I didn't hear a whistle blown once. There were hoards of teenagers jumping, bombing on top of each others heads,diving, throwing each other in and running fast and throwing themselves and others in the pool. At the time of the incident I saw a young woman jump in the pool in front of me and pull out a little girl's lifeless body not more than a few yards away from the lifeguard, with the young woman shouting for the lifeguard to do something but she appeared not to have noticed anything going on, and then instead of putting out a tannoy message for a doctor or nurse no one did anything for several minutes with the little girl on her back until someone thought to put her on her side. It appeared no one knew what to do until the paramedics arrived. I spend a lot of time at pools and there are always rules about jumping and diving etc. in fact I think sometimes they're too strict but at Brockwell Park Lido there are no rules, which is lovely if you have enough lifeguards to look after everyone but two guards and no rules is ludicrous, I fear the little girl may have been jumped on or overcome by water when kids were bombing in the pool. I don't know what to do now but can't rest until I know that someone has done something to make the place safer.

[acb2013]

Sorry to read this, it sounds horrific. Hope the little girl was OK. I see the thread elsewhere on the Forum has offered advice on reporting it, but thank you for posting in the family room too to raise awareness.

[Mellors]

How awful. I swim there regularly all year, and never have a problem (its normally quiet) but I have to say that this Monday was awful. It was absolutely chaotic and I can well imagine how this could have happened. I only lasted 20 minutes and got out. It definitely needs to be better "policed" at busy holiday times.

I also don't think it helps that so much space is laned off, leaving only a relatively small area (with an even smaller shallow end) for all the kids to play in. It would be better to rope off an area widthways for small kids I think, and have two lifeguards on the width of that end. The teenagers need to be sent off down the other end away from them and controlled better.

[Janie@eurolanresearc]

I have written to my local MP about this, so thanks for all your helpful replies. I know that at the Guildford Lido there are 5 lifeguards on high chairs and 4 walking around the pool. Someone posted that smoking wasn't allowed even in quiet times but when I was there on Monday, Tuesday and yesterday there were people all around me smoking. The place was filthy too, bins overflowing and rubbish being blown around. I've never seen anyone clearing any rubbish at all - I can't imagine another country putting up with this, my daughter won't allow me to take her 10 year old twins to the place, I know why now!! I was talking to a lady yesterday who swims there summer and winter and she was saying how dirty the place was and the water didn't look clean at all.

[Annaoneill]

Hi Janie and others on this thread. I'd be very interested in looking into this for BBC Radio London.

Please email me a contact number as soon as you can as today is my last day in for a couple of weeks! [email protected]

Also which is your local MP? I will follow this up.

Best regards

Anna O'Neill

Broadcast Journalist

BBC Radio London

0207 765 1157

@annareporting

[Saffron]

Relieved to read that the child in question was reported to be ok in the end. Incidents like this always remind how easy it is to miss seeing a drowing victim, or how badly our lungs can be affected even much later. http://mariovittone.com/2010/05/154/

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/7655098.html

[Loigal]

I'm sure the lido (run by fusion?) will need to do a health and safety review of the incident and as you were a witness can you write to them? Then they have to formally investigate your witness statement and surely they'll have to remediate the low standards? I'm sure they'd welcome independent feedback. (Edited to make clear an investigation of the witness statement to add to their own inevitable review of what happened)

[alice]

Why would anyone think they are not already investigating the incident in the proper manner.

[Angelina]

Clean and tidy today when we were there... as usual.

Lifeguards were on the ball - as I've usually found.

Perhaps they should have stepped up their game with the heat and possibly controlled the numbers...howver I am absolutely shocked to read that the staff did not know what to do. I kow they train, I've been there in winter and they've been training to cover all conditions.

They are paid low wage... is that normal for a position of such responsibility?

This will be taken seriously and I hope a fact finding to understand what happened

[alice]

staff clearly did know what to do - the person survived. To onlookers seconds can seem like minutes.

[Over_the_Pond]

Or, the child survived in spite of the staffs' purported lack of action. I don't know. I wasn't there. But it's not logical to conclude one way or the other that the outcome was entirely and only dependent on the lifeguards. Also, because details don't appear to have been released due to privacy, there's no way to know what extent of injury this child suffered. And, agreed seconds can seem longer to onlookers; however, seconds do count when someone is drowning. The OP appears to be an eye witness and felt strongly enough about it to raise concerns. I can't see any reason to downplay that.

[tomskip]

Alice, your post has really rattled me! Staff clearly did NOT know what to do as the little girl was pulled from the water by a member of the public. That is shocking in itself. The fact that she survived is down to the quick thinking of the young woman who jumped in to save her. Then she was left on her back and no call was made for a doctor or nurse! It's all there in the op.

[alice]

Why on earth is that shocking! It's great that the 1st person to notice acted. And who was supposed to be responsible for this child?

Edited to say : It seems now that it was the child's mother who jumped in after her.

[tomskip]

I don't know where the carer of the child was. Or was that a rhetorical question? and how does the whereabouts of this child's carer have any bearing on the questions being asked about the performance of the Life Guards?