Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Royal Life Saving NT's Steve Gazzola about the danger of increased drownings in the Wet Season

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Katie spoke with Royal Life Saving NT's Steve Gazzola about the danger of increased drownings in the Wet Season · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Now, there is always plenty going on around around the
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  Speaker 1: top end, and we do know that water safety is
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  Speaker 1: such an important thing for all of us to be
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  Speaker 1: aware of, whether you've got little kids or not, but
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  Speaker 1: particularly if you do have little kids. And joining me
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  Speaker 1: in the studio right now is the operations manager with
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  Speaker 1: Royal Life Saving here in the Northern Territory, Steve Gazola.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: How are you going, Kaddie?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, very well now, Steve, we do know unfortunately more
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  Speaker 1: than five hundred children aged between zero and four years
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  Speaker 1: old have died from drowning in Australia over the past
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  Speaker 1: nineteen years. That's according to new research which has been
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  Speaker 1: released by Royal Life Saving. It really just goes to
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  Speaker 1: show that we've got to do our best to try
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  Speaker 1: and make sure kids are safe around water, doesn't it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a tragic statistic. And if we're going specifically
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  Speaker 2: for Northern Territory, thirteen children have drowned in those nineteen years,
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  Speaker 2: So one's too many and us at Royal Life Saving
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  Speaker 2: really do feel for the families of those. It is
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  Speaker 2: one's too many, and yeah, thirteen is way too many.
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  Speaker 2: We found that over half of these have occurred during
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  Speaker 2: the wet season, so obviously now we're having that gray
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  Speaker 2: build up that the water is starting to come around.
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  Speaker 2: The Todd's now flowing. So with that water comes really
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  Speaker 2: the focus on water safety and keeping an eye on
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  Speaker 2: your children.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is such an important thing to do, and
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  Speaker 1: I know that sometimes it can be hard, you know,
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  Speaker 1: especially when your kids. I reckon around the age of two,
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  Speaker 1: once they sort of start crawling and climbing, and that
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  Speaker 1: can be one of the really tough things is sometimes
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  Speaker 1: you think the kids are safe and then all of
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  Speaker 1: a sudden, they're light little monkey's able to get over
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  Speaker 1: fences and do things that you wouldn't even think they'd
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  Speaker 1: be able to do.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Royal Life Saving statistics show that once they reach
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  Speaker 2: the age their first birthday, their risk of drowning triples.
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  Speaker 2: And it's exactly like you said, Katie, the restricting the
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  Speaker 2: access to the backyard swimming pool, maintaining your pool fence,
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  Speaker 2: making sure that that fence is actually closed when you're
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  Speaker 2: not around and is able to stay closed with you know,
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  Speaker 2: territory fences rust out. So making sure that we're maintaining
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  Speaker 2: our fences and we're checking them consistently because children will
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  Speaker 2: climb that fence having pop plants or toys or whatever
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  Speaker 2: might be around the fence, that that's just a license
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  Speaker 2: to climb and access the pool without our children, without
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  Speaker 2: our families knowing it. Nine of the deaths that have
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  Speaker 2: occurred over those nineteen years, they've children have fallen into
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  Speaker 2: the water without the parents knowing.
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  Speaker 1: Do you know. The other time that's always really scary,
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  Speaker 1: I reckon is at parties and it's almost like there's
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  Speaker 1: so many sort of adults around that nobody's one hundred
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  Speaker 1: percent sure sometimes who's looking after a particular child. And
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  Speaker 1: I know, I think I've said this to you before.
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  Speaker 1: I know, there was a party that we were at
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  Speaker 1: one year and my husband actually had to dive in
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  Speaker 1: and get my daughter who was struggling to swim and
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  Speaker 1: was right there. So it can happen to anybody, and
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  Speaker 1: you've just got to be so vigilant all the time.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's all about active supervision. So when we're saying
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  Speaker 2: active supervision for children underneath the age of five, that's
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  Speaker 2: within arms reach. So if you are in a party
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  Speaker 2: and can be distracted by other things that are happening
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  Speaker 2: around you, it's active supervision. So within arm's reach of
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  Speaker 2: those really young children. As I said, it's all about
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  Speaker 2: restricting the access to those backyard swimming pools. It's also
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  Speaker 2: about teaching swimming and water safety to our children. So
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  Speaker 2: making sure that you know we are teaching them how
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  Speaker 2: to stay safe within the water, but that doesn't stop
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  Speaker 2: that active supervision. That active supervision is that first barrier
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  Speaker 2: to really stopping the drownings. And learn how to respond
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  Speaker 2: to an emergency. So get your first DAI training, get
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  Speaker 2: your CPR training, and know if the worst case scenario
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  Speaker 2: does happen, what's the best way to try and increase
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  Speaker 2: the chance of living.
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  Speaker 1: Dave obviously talking about you know about pool safety and
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  Speaker 1: talking about around the home as well when there's water around,
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  Speaker 1: but we also know this time of the year some
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  Speaker 1: of our rivers and creeks become quite swollen. I know
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  Speaker 1: that you know most of the time you're sort of
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  Speaker 1: not near those areas with your children. But even the
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  Speaker 1: Todd River in Central Australia at the moment is flooded,
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  Speaker 1: isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, only one way in and out of the out
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  Speaker 2: of the town at the moment. So yeah, it's all
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  Speaker 2: about those waterways can change really really quickly. So it's
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  Speaker 2: just making sure that we're aware that those waterways are
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  Speaker 2: really dangerous and we're always encouraging parents to keep watching
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  Speaker 2: around the water. So, yeah, that's the main message to
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  Speaker 2: take away today.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with you. Hey, is there anywhere where
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  Speaker 1: people can go for a bit of info if there
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  Speaker 1: may be wondering, you know, if there is sort of
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  Speaker 1: certain swimming lessons or different ways that they are able
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  Speaker 1: to to become a little bit more aware of the
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  Speaker 1: dangers around water, where can they go to?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look us up on our socials Royal Life Saving
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  Speaker 2: Northern Territory. That'll take you to any of our sort
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  Speaker 2: of ways that you can find out more about this.
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  Speaker 2: And also to remember that drowning can be quite quick
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  Speaker 2: and silent, and that's really a big take home message
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  Speaker 2: as well. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and I suppose you know, we're talking about that
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  Speaker 1: thirteen children, thirteen lives have been lost of our little
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  Speaker 1: territorians over the years, but that doesn't even take into
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  Speaker 1: account all the near misses as well.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so for every near miss, unfortunately eight children go
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  Speaker 2: to hospital from a near drowning experience. Most of the
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  Speaker 2: time it's a day, but a lot of those other
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  Speaker 2: ones can have lifelong issues because of a near drowning experience.
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  Speaker 2: So this captures a small part of what actually happens
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  Speaker 2: throughout the Northern Territory. That's why it's really poorn that.
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  Speaker 2: You know, kids can't help themselves around the water. It's you,
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  Speaker 2: it's the parents to keep watch well.
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  Speaker 1: Steve Gazola, the operations manager with Royal Life Saving here
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  Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory. Always good to catch up with
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  Speaker 1: you mate, Thanks so much for your time. It is
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  Speaker 1: just twenty minutes away from eleven o'clock on Mix