Pearl Diving anyone?

Did anyone else read about today's Darwin Award
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/isle_of_man/8147032.stm

and think "Pearl Diving" ;o)

I met Palahniuk a few years ago and he did a recital of "Guts". Erk!!

 

Why, in the name of Dog, does anyone begin ferkling about with a water
pump grate at the bottom of a swimming pool?

"His mother Marion Griffiths criticised a delay in the rescue attempt
caused by a lifeguard's refusal to believe the vent had been opened"

Or...

"His mother Marion Griffiths couldn't believe her Son was so stupid to
begin ferkilling a water pump outlet at the bottom of a pool to
recover his goggles"

In fairness, she probably has a good point, they should have moved,
but, I ask you, who goes diving under grates in a swimming pool!?

Are 14 year olds really that thick? Maybe I was just lucky.

 

Yes, HTH.

 

This comes back to that decisions thread above. If her and her
husband had made a decision and spent more time trying to get in there
and help her son, rather than arguing with a lifeguard, the lad might
still be around. I certainly think if my son is in trouble like that,
I won't be waiting for someone else to help him if I can.

 

Doubt it. If they'd gone in there after him, one or other or both of
them would also be dead.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Tosspot

By and large, yes. Many of us survived the experience, but not for lack
of trying.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - "He's hopeless, but he's honest"

I have already made the greatest contribution to the fight against climate
change that I can make: I have decided not to breed. Now quit bugging me and
go and talk to the Catholics.

 

You've got it bang to rights there.

Kids are stupid and do stupid things because that's what makes them
stronger when they grow up. The parents should have been in that pool
trying to save him rather than asking someone else why they weren't
doing it.

Calling it Darwinism in action is (imo) pretty harsh because I've
spent years doing some stupid things but at least I'll never look back
and say "I wish I'd had the bollocks to do that." I sometimes wonder
if anyone here is pathetic enough to call it Darwinism when a young
lad crashes and dies on the IoM doing something for our entertainment.

 

By all accounts, this was according to CP when I met him, the suction in
a big pool system, when it funnels into the extract pipe, is
significant. Imagine what it takes to pull a fit and struggling 14 y/o
through the system.

The process should be to yell at Lifeguard to kill power to the pump.
Have an ambulance on the way (for Defib). Two people into the head of
the pipe and another team getting the pump room access plate off ASAP.

He is going to have drowned no matter what, by the time anyone notices
he is gone. As I'm sure Andy knows, getting the lungs clear of trapped
air/water and restarting breathing/heart is always going to be a long
shot. And if you do, the chances are time will be well over 3 minutes
and better to leave the poor **** dead.

 

Not a nice way to go.

--


Nige,

BMW K1200S
Range Rover Vogue
Suzuki GSX-R600 Racebike
Honda ST1100 Pan European (comes this week)

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Andy Bonwick

Darwinism? I'll give you fucking Darwinism!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8149151.stm

"The GMB union has called for large wheelie bins to be checked
individually before they are emptied into refuse trucks."

Fucking idiots.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - "He's hopeless, but he's honest"

I have already made the greatest contribution to the fight against climate
change that I can make: I have decided not to breed. Now quit bugging me and
go and talk to the Catholics.

 

Not in the slightest.

Would you have gone into the pool and tried your hardest if it had
been your child?

No need to answer really because I'm 100% confident you would have
done which brings me back to the point that the parents should have
done more and anyone taking a cheap shot about teenagers being thick
was either the kid who sat at home playing scrabble with their parents
or just didn't want to be a part of the growing up process.

I've been involved in trying to get someone out of the water when they
were drowning (1) and it's an all round shit situation where no matter
what you know you've done, if you fail you feel really crap about it.

(1) I was rowing (2) on the river in Bedford when I saw someone
struggling in the water. By the time I'd got the boat to the side and
went in it was too late and he drowned. The coroner got a moody on
with me because I failed to turn up at the inquest (3) where the
victims family wanted to thank me for going into the river and when I
was awarded a medal of some kind for having a go I didn't turn up to
collect it because the bloke died. It really isn't somewhere you want
to be putting yourself.

(2) Really, I used to be able to do that kind of shit.

(3) Would you go to the inquest and tell the victims family you'd put
making the boat safe against the bank before going in and helping him?
In my defence he was a pissed up paddy and probably not worth saving
but...

 

I'm surprised there haven't been more accidents of similar type, tbh.
Given the ropey state of much construction work at Med holiday resorts,
it seems only natural that such gratings are just waiting to collapse
sometime. Yes, I know he opened it himself, and it should have been
locked down. Another point is, why the **** is a big ****-off intake
needed when several smaller and safer intakes would do the job just as
well.

 

Moving water is always dangerous, just stand in a river that looks
like it's pootling along and see how deep you get before your feet get
taking out from under you. Current around Portland and around Jersey
both spring to mind as well. No, actually taking the grill off was
the point, that was imho, mind staggeringly dumb. I mean, who hasn't
seen one at the bottom of a pool and felt the suction?

Maybe, probably was a bit of a flap at the time, and it's not clear if
both parents could swim.

 

Assuming they could swim, which is, it must be said, a reasonable one.
Does anyone not know how to swim these days?

No, that is a reasoned, thought out process, with as much risk
mitigation as possible, like for instance skydiving, rarely kills
people. Getting pissed and jumping off the 3rd floor holding onto an
umbrella is Darwinism. Or for that matter, frigging with a swimming
pool pump to get a pair of goggles back. I mean, the average 14 year
old is *not* stupid, quite the contrary in my experience, like I said
up there, mind staggeringly stupid. A 5 year old would know no
better, but a 14 yo?

 

Teenagers aren't necessarily stupid but they're not risk aware. At
that age you're immortal and seem to still lack the reasoning process
that can follow a logical sequence of events. I know I did things then
that I wouldn't now because I am much more aware of what could go
wrong.

 

Well quite. I'm sure I've put my hand on many pool gratings to see what
the suction was like. Did I ever think of lifting the grating?
actually NO. Then again I've never seen one big enough to swim into or
that I could be pulled through so I expect the lawyers should be
involved.

 

"The GMB union has called for large wheelie bins to be checked
individually before they are emptied into refuse lorries. Spokesman
Robert Macey said the way they were currently collected in Brighton
meant people could get trapped inside before being loaded on a cart. A
spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council said: "This is a tragic
incident. The council has warned people not to get into our bins and
have put stickers on the 700 street bins. "We are also putting them on
the other 1,000 bins we have in bin stores to remind everyone of the
dangers. In addition we have worked with groups across the city to raise
the issue with vulnerable people. We really hope the message gets across
so that this isn't repeated."

This leaves me speechless on so many levels. I mean, we WANT to crush
and dispose of people who would get into these bins surely?

 

It's certainly not a great loss to mankind.

'course, we could probably get shot of the kind of person who thinks that
if they put a sticker on a wheely bin saying "It's a bit silly to climb
into this and hide until bin day", pissed-up fuckwits will read that and
re-think their plans for the night.

 

We're unlikely to lose a cure for cancer that's for sure.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, boots

Hmm... It seems that the guy was a teacher.

"Well, I think we all learned a lesson here today"

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - "He's hopeless, but he's honest"

I have already made the greatest contribution to the fight against climate
change that I can make: I have decided not to breed. Now quit bugging me and
go and talk to the Catholics.