Very Sad

Tragedies:

Four people have died and three vanished within two days at beaches in New York City and on Long Island.

      How terrible. People love to swim, but unfortunately dihydrogen monoxide is fatal when inhaled. Meanwhile, in bucolic Ridgewood, Graydon Pool has hosted its third drowning in thirty years. This has prompted hysterical calls to pave over the pool:

this is something that would have never happened if it wasn't a brown bottem (sic) pool. If they made thins (sic) a REAL POOL!!!!

We've lived in Ridgewood for 9 years and don't take my kids to Graydon because of the dark water. It's not worth the risk. I won't go until they change it to a cement bottom with clear, chlorinated water.

I live in ridewood (sic), and i agree that what happened was really upseting(sic) and i am very sorry that his family and friends have to go through this situation. i think this tragidy (sic) could have been prevented. They spent over 30 minutes looking for the boys(sic) body in the merky (sic) discusting (sic) water. If the pool was clear and clean they would have rescued him in only 4-5 minutes and his life would have been saved.

      Sigh. As tragic as any premature death is, one cannot design all risk out of life. Replacing Graydon with a concrete, clear water pool will simply replace the dangers of lake swimming with the dangers of filtered water swimming. What will happen when the first “little villager” (as we guards liked to call the young swimmers) gets his hand stuck in drain and can't get back to the surface? Or a child slips while running and lands on a concrete deck instead of a sand beach? Or somebody gets pushed off the edge and lands in 15 feet of water instead of a gentle sand bottom 12" deep? As far as the performance of the lifeguards, I would like to offer some perspective. It is astounding how quickly and quietly a swimmer can go from “okay” to “gone.” I remember sitting on the stand on the dock one afternoon. Two girls jumped in succession from the high dive, and came up. Seeing them safely on the surface, I turned to watch some youngsters swimming from the dock out to the deep water raft. While I watched those swimmers, the two girls from the high dive both became frightened, embraced each other, and slipped silently under the water within feet of the ladder. Luckily, the guard sitting over on the west bank was watching, blew the emergency whistle, and tragedy was averted. Graydon is a swimming pool, and as such carries inherent dangers. Changing the pool from sand to concrete will change the nature of the risk, but won’t eliminate it.