Waikato river drowning
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I think, given that there are reports of other people swimming there, that more should have been done to make it abundantly clear no swimming is allowed, and why.
on another note, excessive dairy farming and irrigation in Canterbury is destroying the rivers, in this case...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/89159663/swimming-hole-on-canterburys-selwyn-river-reaches-record-low-and-nearly-stagnantreal shame, one of the enjoyable things growing up was swimming in rivers
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@Wairau you see signs at beaches saying only swim between the flags, or the shark sign and yet people still swim outside the flags and in spite of warnings.
You simply cannot account for every person to abide by the rules, yes it is a tragedy and inevitably people look to blame someone, usually anyone other than the victim...
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@taniwharugby said in Waikato river drowning:
@Wairau you see signs at beaches saying only swim between the flags, or the shark sign and yet people still swim outside the flags and in spite of warnings.
You simply cannot account for every person to abide by the rules, yes it is a tragedy and inevitably people look to blame someone, usually anyone other than the victim...
In defence of swimming despite warning signs there is a beautiful waterfall in the Grampions national park in Victoria. Mackenzie falls I think it's called, talking to the locals they say its a great place to swim however as it turns out swimming is not allowed. The reason being a couple kids died a few years back and from what I can tell its just a massive overreach by the fun police. There were about 40 people swimming there when I visited, the only thing that I can pick up as being dangerous is that the rocks are slippery but that's to be expected being nature and all and not a public swimming pool. I think it's this overreach on safety which results in a desensitisation towards warning signs.
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@Rembrandt no win situation then is it.
Authorities do what they deem is right, accidents happen when people ignore the signs, then they get blame for not doing more?
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oh and also apparently just before we arrived a group was screaming at some swimmers chastising them for 'disrespecting our culture!'. Unfortunately they had gone by the time we got down there so didn't get any info on the ethnicity of the protestors. There certainly wasn't any information about it being a culturally sensitive site and I wasn't able to google up anything either, definitely a possibility that they just assumed it was the case for the no swimming signs.
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@taniwharugby Yep. Though it would be great to have some sort of decent criteria for 'no swimming'. I wonder what the warning signs said in the waikato? I think the Mackenzie falls should have been fine with a 'careful wet rocks can be slippery' sign.
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@Rembrandt do you watch the Piha Rescue programme? Sadly in some cases they might need signs that say 'if you cant swim, stay out of the water'
Is no account for stupidity or naivety unfortunately, as was the tone of my post, you can only do so much before people make their own decisions to take the risk, despite any warnings.
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@Rembrandt said in Waikato river drowning:
@taniwharugby Yep. Though it would be great to have some sort of decent criteria for 'no swimming'. I wonder what the warning signs said in the waikato? I think the Mackenzie falls should have been fine with a 'careful wet rocks can be slippery' sign.
and
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@nzzp well that certainly is a number of warnings to ignore! Only thing I'd change is the wording to 'water WILL rise' and some reference to the meaning of the siren. Totally different from the standard 'no swimming' sign at the falls i visited without any further specific warnings.
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Yeah maybe they need a graphic that shows how high the water might get or something...
But ultimately people are going to do what they do in spite of whatever signs/warnings exist. As several posters have said you can only go so far to protect against stupid/careless actions.
I recall all sorts of antics when I was younger and dumber - esp up around Otaki river/forks. Lots of gnarly places to do sick bombs. But no matter how boozed or otherwise la la'd we were, we always checked depth and for rocks and stuff. Just basic stuff to make sure you have fun rather than a bad time.
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Shit, I've swum quite a few times at the Aratiatia dam before when younger, it is an awesome spot. Still try and stop there whenever I'm in NZ and driving from HB to north of Taupo.
If you just obey the sign regarding the times its perfectly safe.....and even if you don't, from when the siren goes off until when the waters get very rough its about 5 minutes. And it takes about 20 seconds to get out from the best swimming spot, which is the pool right under the road bridge to the power station itself.
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Thanks for posting the warning signs @nzzp. I consider the DOC sign to be completely inadequate.
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There is no mention of floodgates regularly opening. That would be enough to put off most people.
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There is no mention of warning sirens. Presumably Ms De Jong and her friends had no idea what the sirens meant when they went off.
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Instead of the very mild "Water level may rise" how about "Raging torrents several times a day"
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It only says swimming is not advised. This pretty weak considering the situation there and a previous drowning.
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@piffle said in Waikato river drowning:
Thanks for posting the warning signs @nzzp. I consider the DOC sign to be completely inadequate.
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There is no mention of floodgates regularly opening. That would be enough to put off most people.
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There is no mention of warning sirens. Presumably Ms De Jong and her friends had no idea what the sirens meant when they went off.
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Instead of the very mild "Water level may rise" how about "Raging torrents several times a day"
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It only says swimming is not advised. This pretty weak considering the situation there and a previous drowning.
Risk of drowning, swimming not advised not enough of a warning? Should they have made the sign in crayon for milllenial stupidity?
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@Kirwan said in Waikato river drowning:
@piffle said in Waikato river drowning:
Thanks for posting the warning signs @nzzp. I consider the DOC sign to be completely inadequate.
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There is no mention of floodgates regularly opening. That would be enough to put off most people.
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There is no mention of warning sirens. Presumably Ms De Jong and her friends had no idea what the sirens meant when they went off.
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Instead of the very mild "Water level may rise" how about "Raging torrents several times a day"
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It only says swimming is not advised. This pretty weak considering the situation there and a previous drowning.
Risk of drowning, swimming not advised not enough of a warning? Should they have made the sign in crayon for milllenial stupidity?
probably should have written the sign in txt format with a ton of # as well
#dntswimhere#ntsafeaye#avoidbruh#trumpsux
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