The
summer of 2010 will be remembered for its record heat. But it has
provided a different memory for Bernard J. Fisher II, the director of
health and safety at the American Lifeguard Association.
This was the year he heard a sharp rise in complaints about lifeguards who were texting on the job.
“This
issue has really come out for us this year,” Mr. Fisher said, adding
that he had heard several dozen complaints about the practice this
summer, compared with none in 2008. “Lives are being endangered, if not
already lost, because of text messaging.”
The
threat is not hypothetical. At a public pool this summer in Duncan,
Ariz., a child panicked in the water and was rescued by an adult
visitor. Others at the pool said the lifeguard had been texting, and he
was fired, said John Basteen Jr., the town manager.
Last
summer, a 45-year-old Illinois man drowned at a beach where the guard
was texting, according to witnesses deposed in a civil suit against the
residential community where the drowning happened.
And
two years ago in Ireland, a 10-year-old boy drowned in a pool that was
guarded by a young man who had been texting. The guard admitted at a
public hearing to texting before the drowning.
The
explanations seem clear. Lifeguarding positions are commonly filled by
college students who may not want to feel disconnected from their
gadgets, even if their job is to devote full attention to watching for
signs of trouble.
Mr. Fisher of the
lifeguard association said pools and waterfront associations often could
not afford to hire well-qualified guards or to supervise guards as
closely as they might have in past years.
Organizations
have cut lifeguard wages, he said, to the point where many earn minimum
wage and pay for their own training and certification, which can cost
hundreds of dollars.
“Because
of the lack of pay, you can’t pick and choose the caliber of guard you
need,” Mr. Fisher said. “Plus, the current generation is a generation of
texting.”
Image
A
lifeguard watching the beach at Coney Island last month. The American
Lifeguard Association says text messaging by lifeguards has become a
serious concern.Credit...Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Paul
Atchley, an associate professor of psychology at the University of
Kansas who has extensively researched the technology habits of teenagers
and young adults, said such behavior was not surprising, even among
lifeguards.
“It kind of takes my
breath away, but younger people have the capacity and the expectation to
be able to communicate all the time,” he said. “When they are excluded
from texting networks, their self-esteem declines. I don’t think it’s
compulsion to multitask as much as it is a compulsion to belong.”
Even
texting in short bursts breaks standard rules for lifeguarding. They
are trained to scan their areas in 10-second cycles, because a person
can drown in as little as 20 seconds.
Many
pools and waterfronts have procedures to prevent guards from using
cellphones while on duty. Mary O’Donaghue, the aquatic specialist for
the Y.M.C.A. of Greater New York, said the organization’s roughly 200
guards cannot bring electronic devices onto the chair.
In
past years, Ms. O’Donaghue said, if guards were caught with cellphones
while on duty, they were immediately removed from duty and given another
round of training. “Sometimes they continued working with us, sometimes
not,” she said.
Starting last year,
the organization placed greater emphasis on the issue in its monthly
training sessions where lifeguards must acknowledge in writing that they
can be fired for carrying electronic devices. Since then, no guards
have been found violating the policy.
Clemente
Rivera, of Rockaway Beach, Queens, who has been a lifeguard and
waterfront supervisor in the New York City area since 1989, said that he
often sees guards using their phones. “It’s just rampant,” he said.
Mr.
Rivera said he tried an unconventional approach to solving the problem.
In 2008, as a regional pool manager for a chain of sports clubs, he saw
a lifeguard texting while people were swimming. “I was annoyed,” he
said.
The guard quickly slipped the
phone in his pocket when he spotted Mr. Rivera, who walked to the edge
of the pool. He then called the guard over, asked him to look at
something in the water and then gave the guard “a little shove.”
Mr.
Rivera’s managers asked him to explain his actions, but he was not
reprimanded, and the pool’s guards were never seen texting again.
“Even if the pool’s empty, it’s unconscionable,” Mr. Rivera said.
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