Nassau program targets accidental drowning

Saturday will be Nassau's first Safety Awareness Day, which will promote classes and workshops aimed at educating parents on swimming safety techniques to help protect their children, County Executive Edward Mangano announced Thursday.

"It only takes a few moments for a fun day at the beach or pool to turn tragic," Mangano said. "I encourage everyone to consider these important measures to prevent drowning or other water-related injuries this summer."

Mangano was speaking at a news conference at the offices of Saf-T Swim in Westbury, whose president -- Jim Hazen -- is also president of the newly created Long Island Drowning Prevention Task Force.

That task force consists of local emergency medical technicians, nurses and other health professionals, who will provide year-round classes, workshops and other services at no cost to Long Island families.

Saturday, local lifeguards and swimming instructors will provide free swimming safety classes at all 10 Saf-T-Swim locations on Long Island. Saf-T-Swim teaches swimming to children, including infants, and adults, including seniors.

"There were 12 drowning death accidents on Long Island last year, six children and six adults," said Bobby Hazen, Jim Hazen's nephew and the founder of the task force. "That's staggering and unnecessary."

At the news conference, Jim Hazen said that "parents should have knowledge of CPR [cardiopulmonary resuscitation]," and one of his instructors, Tom Nicotra, used a medical dummy of an infant to demonstrate the correct procedure.

Citing the state Department of Health and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the task force's booklet on water safety said "drowning is the leading cause of unintentional injury deaths for children ages 1-4" and the second leading cause for those 1-14.

It also said most drownings happened in residential pools, and that for every drowned child, "four others are hospitalized for near-drowning, and as many as three [of that four] suffer permanent brain damage."

County Legis. Dennis Dunne(R-Levittown), chairman of the public safety committee, cautioned: "Before public pools are open, people should take advantage of these free classes for families."

Nassau County's public pools open June 24. Suffolk County does not operate public pools.Town and village public pools may open earlier in both counties.