New bill could help save lives

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

Laguna 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 like Aliso are

perilously low on lifeguards because of the state’s budget crisis and

some question whether there are enough lifeguards to watch the rest

of Laguna. The state Department of Beaches and Parks therefore is

asking swimmers and beachgoers to take extra care -- which they

always should.

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 help guarantee that, which makes it a plan

well worth backing.