Saving Lives

Lifeguards play an important role in the communities they serve. Substantial time, dedication and financial resources go into training lifeguards for their roles, and often this work goes unnoticed in the media and by organizational decision-makers. For years agencies have done a great job of tracking drowning data, but lifeguards and aquatic staff are in the lifesaving business. We have never tracked how many people lifeguards save each year. Reporting of all incidents – rather than only those resulting in death – illustrates how many potentially catastrophic incidents are prevented by lifeguards. Reports sitting in an individual facility's filing cabinet do little good, but if you take this data and collate it with the data from thousands of reports from thousands of facilities, you can see "the big picture" and spot trends.

“Every time a lifeguard intervenes we potentially avoid a catastrophic event”

The Water Incident Research Alliance (WIRA) provides the mechanism to identify trends in aquatic incidents in supervised settings: from people cutting themselves on a ladder to having their first epileptic seizure in the water. Up until now, aquatic administrators haven't had all the tools to effectively manage risk in aquatic facilities; becoming a WIRA member and reporting all incidents will help you identify and prevent potentially catastrophic incidents.

“Intervention is prevention”

Top 10 Reasons to be a Partner with WIRA

1. Saving more lives is good news! WIRA data can help facilities identify potential trouble spots and prevent predictable accidents, and it also demonstrates which technique is most effective in a particular situation. More data reporters will ensure that there are more stories about lives saved than lives lost.

2. Crucial, reliable data regarding water-related accidents and deaths. WIRA will collate the data from all reported water related situations for your organization, municipality or province allowing clients to project trends and prevent similar incidents from happening again.

3. Effective intervention management tool. WIRA can measure where and how a water related staff has intervened and averted a potential catastrophe.

4. WIRA can analyze risk in water-related situations, including: frequency, location, and significance of incidents.

5. The information is credible. For example, the Chief Coroner’s office has used WIRA information as part of an investigation that reviewed legislative requirements for admission and supervision of children in public pools in the Province of Ontario.

6. WIRA delivers analysis in a timely fashion. As soon as reports are verified by WIRA staff, the information is then uploaded to the database.

7. Understanding the big picture. WIRA data aids all organizations responsible for water safety in risk assessment and management planning for aquatic and other recreation programs. How often does your staff respond to situations in the aquatic environment? What types of situations are they responding to? What are the trends? How better to demonstrate to senior management the value of aquatic staff than to statistically validate their performance on a day to day basis? WIRA can offer you the empirical evidence you need to illustrate the value of your aquatic staff to the organization.

8. Legal risk management. Since water related situations represent a higher degree of risk of expensive litigation than other recreation activities, WIRA data is valuable in providing comparative data for use in legal matters.

9. WIRA reports are clear, concise, and graphic. They’re easy to read and understand, making them a useful tool for everyone employed by the facility. These reports helps your staff to focus on primary responsibilities of prevention, recognition, and response.

10. WIRA reporting is quick and easy. Reporting takes less than a minute per incident, which means minimal work for your staff. Reports can be completed on-line, emailed or in hard copy and faxed/mailed to the WIRA office.

“Critical information helps prevent critical injuries”