Drowning Prevention Coalition of El Paso holds annual conference promoting water safety
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The Drowning Prevention Coalition of El Paso held their annual news conference Thursday morning.
The event was held at the Westside Natatorium, beginning at 10 a.m.
Members of the coalition include El Paso Water, the El Paso Fire Department, the YWCA, Wet 'N Wild Waterworld, and various other local organizations.
The coalition was founded in part by Laura and Eddie Castle, who lost their son Christian to drowning in 2007.
The news conference began with a simulated rescue by EPFD's water rescue team, led by Captain Kris Menendez.
Capt. Menendez spoke about when he and his team encounter the most amount of rescues, "It varies from pools to irrigation canals. We make a lot more incidents in the canal system than we do in pools per se, but it is a common occurrence throughout the year and we see it mostly spike in the summer months because that's when it's warmer. Everybody's in the water. And so those numbers tend to be a lot higher during that time," said Menendez.
This event had already been scheduled prior to the drowning of a toddler earlier this month at the City's Camp Cohen Water Park, but ABC-7 asked the General Manager of Wet’ N’ Wild’ Waterworld about safety tips at larger water attractions.
"The floaties can give a false sense of security. What really works is a Coast Guard-approved life jacket for kids to wear at all times," said Chandra Edwards-Cottingham, " Another good safety tip is to assign one person to the family to be able to be specifically focused on the kids when they're in the water, when they're around the water, and then trade off that responsibility during the day."
