How can three people drown in this pool ?

Luckystrike123 said:
Is the water very cold? I hadn't thought that it wouldn't be heated. Very sad if it was something so simple.
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The resort only has one heated pool, this isn’t it, bloody freezing is how I’d describe it, a mission getting in the thing and takes a while to get used to it, no good standing still need to get moving to raise your body temp.

Couldn’t lower myself in, I jump in the shallow end as need to be able to stand to catch breath again, then as you get use to it start swimming.
 
jsmoke said:
He was a pastor. I read the pool was 6ft deep yet I also read they couldn't swim then that they could.
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The hotel claim that he couldn't, and the police claim that she told them that she'd not seen him swim in her time with him.
The second statement can easily be misread (or misunderstood especially when it's being said in a different language or the person is traumatised), as for example no one in my family has seen me swim for years, and friends have never seen me swim, I can however swim fairly well.

So unless the husband and wife went to places with pools on a regular basis i can quite see how someone may be married but never seen their spouse swim, especially with things like swimming lessons often (in my experience) being organised by the mother of the family as she's more likely to be the one available to take the kids swimming.
 
thenewoc said:
I'd buy that if it had just been the dad but for all 3 to be affected in the same way across older and younger generations is a bit of a stretch.
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Cold water shock affects everybody, if you panic then you're in trouble. There's certainly murmurrings that all three weren't profecient swimmers despite what the police have said.
 
Jokester said:
Cold water shock affects everybody, if you panic then you're in trouble. There's certainly murmurrings that all three weren't profecient swimmers despite what the police have said.
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It would be something I'd hazard. You're typically looking at water temps below 15*C for it mind you but entirely possible in an unheated pool. I've had it before but after training - it's difficult to overcome. The natural instinct is to try and gulp in air, which doesn't work when under water. It took proper mental control to not do that and to get myself swimming again.
 
thenewoc said:
I'd buy that if it had just been the dad but for all 3 to be affected in the same way across older and younger generations is a bit of a stretch.
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Children have less body mass, so whilst someone who is older is more likely to have a heart problem due to it, the children are likely to be affected simply by the temperature much faster, and if the young girl was first in and had trouble then that's one, then the father goes in and possibly the immediate shock causes him problems, then the boy has two people in trouble.

It's unfortunately not at all uncommon for multiple people to die trying to help someone out in cold water:( it's one of the reasons IIRC the official advice from pretty much every emergency service is to not get in the water yourself unless you are certain you will be ok, and there is no other choice (and why from memory Police officers are expected to wait for properly equipped personal if they have a report of someone in the water, but cannot see them).

The design of the pool sounds, like many at holiday destinations, to look good but with little thought to safety, especially if there was no life guard around, and no way to assist the person in trouble out of the pool without going in yourself.
 
chaparral said:
Am wondering if it a case of non of them could swim and the mother just saying they could swim so she can sue the hotel..
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The cynic in me has had the same thought.

In a statement given to authorities, the surviving child, older sister of the other 2 kids, had told that they "didn’t know how to swim or didn’t swim very well."

This however has been disputed by the mother since. I find it odd that 2 immediate family members have given directly opposing information.
 
Dis86 said:
Ouch. Too soon!
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Give me a call when you're ready

Resident said:
The cynic in me has had the same thought.

In a statement given to authorities, the surviving child, older sister of the other 2 kids, had told that they "didn’t know how to swim or didn’t swim very well."

This however has been disputed by the mother since. I find it odd that 2 immediate family members have given directly opposing information.
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Doesn't want to accept responsibility for not teaching them to swim completely.
 
Dis86 said:
It would be something I'd hazard. You're typically looking at water temps below 15*C for it mind you but entirely possible in an unheated pool. I've had it before but after training - it's difficult to overcome. The natural instinct is to try and gulp in air, which doesn't work when under water. It took proper mental control to not do that and to get myself swimming again.
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I remember the pool near the campsite we used to go to when I was a kid, it was outdoors and even on warm days was cool which was a major part of the attraction, but there were times when even in a UK summer you'd get in and be cold after a relatively short time and need to get out to warm up.
IIRC it was only open for about 4-6 months of the year centered around July, and had quite a good way of maximising the heat it got from the sun (water from the pool flowed out over a gentle waterfall into paddling pool that was larger than it was, then was pumped back in, so the paddling pool acted as a solar heater).
 
Werewolf said:
I remember the pool near the campsite we used to go to when I was a kid, it was outdoors and even on warm days was cool which was a major part of the attraction, but there were times when even in a UK summer you'd get in and be cold after a relatively short time and need to get out to warm up.
IIRC it was only open for about 4-6 months of the year centered around July, and had quite a good way of maximising the heat it got from the sun (water from the pool flowed out over a gentle waterfall into paddling pool that was larger than it was, then was pumped back in, so the paddling pool acted as a solar heater).
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I've used similar systems. Did a pool for a (ridiculously) wealthy gentleman from a former soviet state who in no way had his money from ill-gotten gains, nuh uh. His wife requested a chem free 'natural' pool which is a bit of a pig to do but I designed a shallow planted area which acted to both filter and pre-heat the water. From memory it was about 3x the size of the pool itself to provide sufficient solar gains and water quality.
 
Werewolf said:
Children have less body mass, so whilst someone who is older is more likely to have a heart problem due to it, the children are likely to be affected simply by the temperature much faster, and if the young girl was first in and had trouble then that's one, then the father goes in and possibly the immediate shock causes him problems, then the boy has two people in trouble.

It's unfortunately not at all uncommon for multiple people to die trying to help someone out in cold water:( it's one of the reasons IIRC the official advice from pretty much every emergency service is to not get in the water yourself unless you are certain you will be ok, and there is no other choice (and why from memory Police officers are expected to wait for properly equipped personal if they have a report of someone in the water, but cannot see them).

The design of the pool sounds, like many at holiday destinations, to look good but with little thought to safety, especially if there was no life guard around, and no way to assist the person in trouble out of the pool without going in yourself.
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Yep just wonder if the pool temp was plausibly cold enough since people were reported as swimming in the sea at Brighton on Christmas Day. I'd assume the kids went in first and the father reacted with natural instinct to jump in after them with there being no life guard, presumably the adrenaline rush for him didn't help him focus through the cold and his inexperience of such a situation caused him to overlook the life ring.
 
thenewoc said:
Yep just wonder if the pool temp was plausibly cold enough since people were reported as swimming in the sea at Brighton on Christmas Day. I'd assume the kids went in first and the father reacted with natural instinct to jump in after them with there being no life guard, presumably the adrenaline rush for him didn't help him focus through the cold and his inexperience of such a situation caused him to overlook the life ring.
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People get into the sea slowly over time and can stand, very different from plunging into a depth where you cannot stand, if your not a great swimmer or cannot swim it’s very easy to get in trouble, add the temp of the water and panic from trying assist someone else and it’s not a great combo.
 
The people swimming in the sea at the likes of Brighton etc are usually regulars who do it as part of a club activity and with lifeguards etc in attendance, thus they are aware of the temperature, how it affects them (both in theory and practice), and covered if something goes wrong (IIRC they will have someone prepped for a cold water rescue).
This is quite different from jumping in the pool at a hotel expecting it to be like the ones you've learned to swim in and used at home, not recognising the initial stages of the effects of the cold water and getting into trouble without a trained lifeguard around.

People react differently to the temperature in part based on experience and conditioning, holiday makers who are used to warm pools will almost certainly be more at risk in cold water than people who do it routinely.

as SupraWez says, you also get into the sea by walking into it at the winter swims, thus avoiding the shock and having the option of turning around and walking out, as opposed to straight into water that's too deep to stand in (which strikes me as an appalling design for an unguarded pool where people of unknown/mixed abilities will be using it).
 
Yeah not sure the reporting of the incident confirms whether it was the family's first day at the resort to not know the pool wasn't heated. Rather tragic if they did just jump in expecting it to be heated though.
 
Puzzled said:
It is odd but then a lot of people get injured when trying to save someone from drowning as they are thrashing around in a panicked state, well that's what a first aider told me anyway.
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when I did my open water scuba training one of my instructors who was teaching me how rescue another diver told me after the practical session that she would actually never attempt to save another diver if they appeared to be even in the slightest in a state of panic and out of control as it would more than likely end up with 2 dead divers, the only person she would ever rescue without a thought would be her husband
 
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