How Long Islanders can keep safe at beaches and pools this summer

As temperatures spike during the summer season, more people are seeking reprieve in Long Island's pools and beaches. But swimming experts are warning people to take precautions when they enter the water.

New York, in 2024, saw roughly 125 people die by drowning, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Already this year, a 69-year-old Huntington Station man who was swimming in a pool at an apartment complex was found unconscious by a bystander in June, Newsday reported. And in May, a Westchester County teen likely drowned off Shelter Island after becoming separated from several friends who were crossing a shallow channel, police told news outlets.

Jamie Ryan, a certified pediatric registered nurse and an injury prevention coordinator at Stony Brook Children's Hospital, said avoiding drowning takes “layers of protection" that can include swim lessons or fencing around a pool. 

“There's not one thing that will ever prevent drowning, isolated," later adding that preventing it takes deploying a “Swiss cheese model."

“You put one layer, and then another layer, and then another layer, and you just keep adding these layers until you have as many layers as possible to avoid drowning," Ryan said.

What are the signs of drowning?

Drowning, medical and swimming experts say, is often a silent event. Unlike how such deaths are often portrayed with thrashing and yelling, a person in distress can often slip under the water right in front of bystanders who don't notice, they said.

“There have been bystanders right next to the pool, right next to their child, thinking they’re watching and they just didn’t realize the child was drowning because it was so silent and happens so quickly," said Ryan.

Often, a person who is drowning has their mouth toward the surface of the water and their body going straight up and down, said Shawn Slevin, founder and executive director of the Swim Strong Foundation, a nonprofit that seeks to reduce drownings through swimming instruction and building situational knowledge of water.

The person might be bobbing because they are using their hands to push the water down so that they can breathe.

“They are so focused on getting that breath, that ... they can't hear you if you try to call out to them, they really can't see you; they're in this zone of just focusing on getting the breath," she said in a phone interview.

What are the best ways to prevent drowning?

One of the most important precautions is to designate a water watcher, an undistracted person who watches people in the water for 10-to-15-minute intervals.

After that, a barrier, such as a fence, around a pool can decrease drowning, experts said. Children should always wear a Coast Guard-approved jacket.

Swimming experts also emphasized the importance of parents ensuring their children learn how to swim.

“My number one safety tip would be to make sure that you take swimming lessons to get prepared for the summer," Christina Frank, the Aquatic Director at Patchogue Family YMCA, said.

What precautions should be taken at the beach?

Slevin said it’s important to check local weather conditions when going to the beach and to ask the lifeguard on duty about rip currents or other issues that might impact their swim.

“Is there a drop-off in this area?" she said. “Is there a boulder in this area, or a sandbar that typically forms in this area? Things that could interrupt my swim. I want to know about them, so I can factor that into my plan, and I can have a great day in the water without any problems."

If a swimmer does run into problems, she said it is important to get the lifeguard’s attention by trying to wave instead yelling at them because the calls will likely go unheard.

She added that it is also important that the person swim with a buddy.

“If you or your buddy gets in trouble, then the other person can get the help of the lifeguard," she said. “If you're by yourself and you get in trouble, you're in trouble."

John Ryan Jr, president of the Hampton Lifeguard Association and chief lifeguard for the Town of East Hampton, recommends that parents give their children high visibility rash guards to better keep track of them while swimming.

“Everybody’s got no shirt on, but your child has a high vis rash guard or dry fit shirt," Ryan said. “Those kinds of things are important because it makes it easier to recognize your kid among everybody else that looks the same."

What are the groups at highest risk for drowning?

The most common cause of death for children between the ages of 1 and 4 is drowning, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From 5 to 14, drowning accounts for the second highest cause of accidental deaths.

Jamie Ryan, who is also a member of the Suffolk County Drowning Prevention Alliance, said that the younger group’s drowning tends to happen in a pool or standing water, while teens are more likely to die in open water.

But experts also note that a person can drown in two minutes and it can happen in 2 inches of water, meaning that larger bodies of water like beaches and pools can be the scene of drownings but so can bathtubs, toilets and other places, experts say.

What should you do first if you see someone drowning?

The most important thing is to pull the person from the water, experts say. Someone should call 911, while another person starts conducting CPR, starting with two rescue breaths and then chest compressions.

Even if the person has swallowed water but seems OK, experts say it is important to call EMS if the child has experienced a change in color, prolonged coughing, or struggled for a long time to get out of the pool.

At the hospital, medical providers can check their vital signs and observe to see if water has impacted their lungs.

“We can then safely send them home, or we can decide to admit them to observe them for longer to make sure that they're not going to continue to have respiratory distress," Jamie Ryan said.