Marseille tests buoys to fight drowning at sea between Pointe Rouge and Samena

The PACA region holds the sad drowning record. Half of it occurs at sea. In Marseille, the city decided to test a new device to help bathers in distress. Six "emergency buoys" were installed in five unsupervised areas considered to be particularly accidental, all located between the port of Pointe Rouge and the cove of Samena:

► the Bath of the Ladies
► the beach of the Battery
► the beach of the Phocaeans
► the cove of Mont-Rose
► the cove of Samena

The trap of the currents

"There are two buoys in the handle of Mont-Rose because it is even more dangerous than elsewhere, indicates the major Michel B. which took care of the project with the Battalion of the Marines-Firefighters of Marseilles, there is no beach and people jump rocks, they go up by the rocks and it is very dangerous when there is surf. "
Many people do not know that there are currents in these bathing areas and are trapped.

In the last three years we have had 4 deaths, 9 serious injuries and between 70 to 80 light injuries

notes the firefighter. "The cutting of the coast and the weather conditions make that there are strong currents, when the sea is formed it changes appearance very quickly and swimmers sometimes have trouble getting back to the beach".

Save time

The buoys were placed about 40 meters from the shore. "Swimmers often go up to the 300 meter limit buoys, these relief buoys are about a quarter of the distance," says Major.

The buoys have a steel strapping that allows the swimmer in distress to hang on and to be able to point out that he is in trouble,

he explains, and this allows us to gain precious minutes to get to him. "

This device of buoys has already been used in Cbadis for several years, a review will be done in Marseille in late October to judge any improvements to be made.We remember that drownings are not only children, the over 45 years are almost half of drownings and 60% of the deaths On June 14th, a 60-year-old bather was rescued at a hundred meters from the shore in Samena cove.