Stolen rescue buoy could have saved drowning victims in Preston
A mother and child drowned at Preston beach.
NSRI Station 39 Rocky Bay informs the community of the tragic drowning of a mother and her six-year-old child at Preston beach last Saturday afternoon.
“Bystanders stood helpless as they could not get to the two people in distress,” said Linda Putter, deputy statcom/station admin.
NSRI had placed a Pink Rescue Buoy at the Preston beach tidal pool roughly a year ago, but this has recently been stolen… again.
“In fact the Pink Rescue Buoy placed at this particular beach has been stolen and replaced four times over the past year already,” added Putter.
The aim of these buoys are for bystanders to throw them to a person in distress while awaiting professional rescue services such as the NSRI. It is also safer to use than a bystander putting him/herself at risk by going out to rescue the victim.
“The Pink Rescue Buoy project is part of an extensive National Drowning Prevention Campaign started by Sea Rescue during 2017, and since then over 100 lives have been saved using these buoys.”
“The buoys are unique to NSRI so if you see a Pink Rescue Buoy that is not on its pole, it has probably been stolen.”
Station 39 pleads with the public to encourage the person who has it to return it to the pole that they removed it from as this could potentially prevent another drowning.
An official police report on the drowning is yet to be received.
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