Goa drowning: Help to find witnesses!

addyelen

god help you to make your way easy and happy with love aditya

Nick-H

Oh, indeed... of course you don't.

__________________
.


Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

LIFEGUARDAVIDAS

Dear Artirina,

I was told to check out this website and particullary your thread. First of all, sorry to hear about your loss.

Since you have posted it a few months ago I do not know if you have already found him or not. In case not, please contact me via e-mail to: guardavidaslifeguards@hotmail. com or lifeguardavidas@hotmail.com with a desription of your brother. Once I get it I will be able to ask the Rashtriya Lifesaving Society founder in case they keep any records or incident reports archive of drowning incidents.

Though I have never been to India, Goa apparently has beaches with a unique beauty. However, the lack of professional lifeguards is obviously a problem both the government and the private sector have not been able to solve. I have read that locals were hired as lifeguards but some of them have minimum knowledge and hardly know how to swim. Also recently some were on strike due to corruption, low salaries and bad working conditions.

I started to investigate the issue after finding out that in the last 4 years more than 200 people drowned in Goa State. 45 people drowned in one single day in 2006! I tried to find out if there is any resort or local government interested in hiring international lifeguards in order to set up a proper lifeguard service but failed. I would love to have the chance to work there at least for a season.

You asked if currents are really so dangerous in one of your posts. Well, the ocean thoguh beautiful has some hazards.

Though professional lifeguards same as lifesavers and water rescuers are trained to respond to emergencies in their area, have also the responsibility for preventing those incidents from happening in the first place.

Proactive professional lifeguards educate beach goers about the many hazards, how to enjoy the beach safety and how to better understand the ocean environment through preventive actions, warnings and public education programs. 90% of a lifeguard's job is prevention. The rest includes rescues, assists, pre-hospital emergency medical care, lost person cases, ordinance and law enforcement, etc.

Over 80% of surf rescues performed by lifeguards worldwide are due to rip currents. Often mistakenly called "rip tides" or "under tow", rip currents are channeled currents that go seaward taking with them floating objects and bathers/swimmers. It takes a while to most people to realize they have been cought in a rip current and by the time they do they are being taken seaward. It is then that they start trying to swim back to shore (against the current) getting tired and panicked until they eventually drown. An avarage swimmer can escape from a rip current by swimming parallel to the beach until he/she is released from the current effect and then return to shore by swimming in diagonal back to the beach.

Rip currents often can be seen parallel to structures such as piers, breakwaters, jetties, groins, rocky formations, etc. Water in the rip current channel usually looks different from the water on its side(s). -This is due to the change of the bottom depth.

A lifeguard assigned to a tower / station near a rip current channel will spend most time of his/her shift warning people to stay away from there and on occassion will have to perform rescues by towing victims perpendicular to the current and parallel to the beach back to safety. Often lifeguards and surfers will get in a rip current channel on purpose in order to go seaward faster. (Waves rarely breaks in the rip current channel, again due to the deeper bottom under it).

I hope you found the information useful and please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

To tourist planning to go to Goa -or already there- plase:
-SWIM NEAR A LIFEGUARD NEVER IN UNGUARDED AREAS
-FOLLOW THE LIFEGUARD'S DIRECTIONS AND CONSULT WITH HIM/HER WHICH IS THE SAFEST PLACE TO GO SWIMMING / BATHING
-DO NOT GO IN THE WATER IF YOU HAVE CONSUMED ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES
-DO NOT SWIM ALONE
-DO NOT DIVE HEAD FIRST INTO UNKNOWN WATERS OR INTO SHALLOW BREAKING WAVES
-DO NOT SWIM NEAR PIERS, JETTIES, ROCKS OR OTHER STRUCTURES/FORMATIONS
-PROTECT YOURSELF FROM THE SUN, USE SUNSCREEN

Above all, be safe!


Guri Sejzer
LIFEGUARD - PHTLS ADVANCED PROVIDER - RESCUE DIVER - AQUATIC SAFETY CONSULTANT

www.myspace.com/lifeguardavidas

SitaParityaga

LIFEGUARDAVIDAS, the OP has not been back to this site for several months.

Thanks for the helpful information.

bijapuri

I've been a swimmer since I could walk- 50 years of swimming. and yet 2 years ago I got swept out in Myanmar- had to holler to the beach for help. Luckily, some local lads swum out and helped me. I might have made it on my own, as I know how to wait and just circle around eventually, but I was mighty glad they fished me out!

The reason I'm relating this is to underscore the danger of swimming in the ocean ANYWHERE if you're not intimately familiar of local conditions. My "read" of the water was totally off.

__________________
Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.
Barack Obama

lookit me!!!: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bijapuri/

Utube fuzzy logic:
http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=bijapuri&p =r

baz

Thanks Lifeguardavidas for your posting. 45 people drowning in one day - what a waste of life. I remember a couple of years ago on Keri beach North Goa, watching a guy so drunk after a sunday picnic heading into the sea. He would'nt listen to anyone about the dangers, including his friends, and went into the sea. The currents there are really strong. About 20 mins later he was washed up on the incoming tide line, face, nose, and mouth of sand, and passed out. His friends carried on partying. One local taxi driver, just shrugged to me and said, for sure he will die.
I dragged the guy with help of my girlfriend and another local up to the shacks. We managed to sober him up and clean the sand off his face. He had been minutes away from death. The sea must be respected at all times.

VickyShields

Hi, so sorry to hear about your loss. I was in Goa from November 4th to 19th and the sea was very rough. Once you get out of your depth there is a very strong undercurrent that pulls you back (we discovered this the hard way - although were fortunate enough to be not so far out that we eventually struggled back in, but it was very frightening at the time). I am a little surprised about the time that your brother was found as darkness falls around 6pm in Goa at that time of year and it gets very dark, especially on the beaches. I would also point out that the beach shacks did not get their licences until November 15th so there were no working shacks on the beach until around the 10th...although there were many under construction, again though - this was during daylight hours.
I have been told that there are around 240 drownings in Goa every season, unfortunately there are no signs warning of the dangers of going beyond a certain depth.
Again, sorry for your loss and I hope you find the answers you are looking for, but it sounds like a tragic accident

ebby

Very true what Nick said. I have seen families, with men in dhotis and women in sarees with kids in tow carelessly playing in kanyakumari where the sea is very turbulent and plenty of rocks! This is an open invitation to disaster.

rama-roo

Hi , are you sure he drowned ? it is common for bodies to be put in the sea after an assult or murder , several of these cases have been shown as corrupt recently and the Chief Pathologist was suspended last month due to false post mortem reporting . I am so sorry for your pain you are not alone with Goa police and cover-up of serious crime .

dzibead

I'm sorry but I think this is just unnecessarily alarmist. Not every apparently accidental death is a murder that's being covered up! This post and several you made in the "British Media on Goa" thread (in which you misunderstood and misinterpreted Indian census data!) make me think you are a bit paranoid. Goa is notorious for rip tides, the beaches don't have life guards, and unfortunately people do actually drown there.

Nick-H

I think that Rama-roo may have personal experience to back up her bitterness about Goa.

For that, I am very sorry, but it is no reason to spread gloom and to take a black view of all such events.

If the OP could be sure of anything, they would not have started this thread, but the sea (or rather people's ignorance of it) is surely still the biggest killer.

rama-roo

Not really , visit the morgue or talk to the Hospital . Do you really think it plausible that so many lone people take off to the beach for a swim at night ? how does that explain the head injuries so often seen and recorded on the drownee's . Another four on Sunday night . Some may drown legitimately but most (which includes naked children or unwanted employee's) are deliberaley 'drowned' to keep it out of the public domain, if you ever have the misfortune to meet Goa police you will know that they are the least honest and credible poeple on the planet . Any Goan will tell you that the police have a hand in most crime whether the victim is local or foreign . Are you a policeman ? or maybe a tour operater ? why isn't this happening anywhere else where beaches exist with strong currents ? Martin Neighbour another one found recently with the usual head injuries and lack of water in his lung's. How long before somebody in the Indian Government takes action in this paradise . Better information about the three main beaches , better police (real police) might be a start to improve the situation for the future .

capt_mahajan

Talk about sweeping statements

machadinha

As has already been mentioned on this thread, tricky undercurrents and consequent drownings occur along many of India's beaches. It isn't just Goa.

The original poster of this thread hasn't been around for a long time; in any case, the thread so far and as you can see was about showing compassion and hopefully giving some useful and straightforward advice, which was what was asked for. Not about scaring the bejeezus out of them, at a time when that was obviously the very last thing they needed. And I hope they have found out what they wanted by now and have generally gained some peace of mind, I imagine their loss is no less today, just a few months down the line.

__________________
Reading tips, all picked up at IndiaMike : INDAX's A Comprehensive Guide To India / Dinoj Surendran's Desi Humor / ITHVC on Culture Shock & Travel Health / JetLag Travel Guides For the Undiscerning Traveller / India Travel Links

birds

Today the Goan newspaper Herald reported that yesterday again two British were found who drowned as well as two Indian guys. Four in 1 day seems an awful lot.

source: http://oheraldo.in/pagedetails.asp?nid=2184&cid=2


Also worth having a look at this:
http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=04078