New bill could help save lives

Huntington Beach’s Assemblyman Tom Harman is looking to beef up the

training of lifeguards throughout California.

He is pushing a bill that would require lifeguard training across

the state to meet a more stringent set of standards, set by the

United States Lifesaving Assn. The bill is sponsored by the Newport

Beach Lifeguard Assn.

As it is now, the state has set no mandated training standards or

regulations for lifeguards on minimum training received or equipment

used.

While training is top-notch in many of our coastal cities, such as

Huntington Beach, that same level is not the standard across the

board. Training is not even the same for lifeguards from one end of

the city to the other. Some stretches are operated and maintained by

the city while the rest is controlled by the state. Does that make it

safer to swim from one block to the next? It shouldn’t.

That’s what makes Harman’s idea a solid one. Anyone living here

should be able to know they can travel anywhere up and down the coast

and find the same knowledgeable care.

Sadly, there will be a different number of lifeguards watching

from city to city and beach to beach. State beaches are perilously

low on lifeguards because of the state’s budget crisis. The state

Department of Beaches and Parks therefore is asking swimmers and

beachgoers to take extra care -- which they always should.

The ocean is a dangerous place -- especially if you are not

trained to handle it.

Just last year, the Pacific Ocean claimed four lives off Surf City

-- one in Sunset Beach, one at the city beach and two off the state

beach. The majority of these happened when no lifeguard was on duty.

There will be fewer lifeguards on duty -- and for less time -- each

year with all the cutbacks, so swimmers need to take extra caution

and beachgoers who do not know how to swim should not go in the water

when there is no lifeguard present.

But during the height of summer, when all the towers are manned,

beachgoers should be secure in the fact that California -- all the

city and state beaches -- have expertly-trained lifeguards watching

over them.

Harman’s bill would guarantee that, which makes it a plan well

worth backing.