Phuket Beach Drowning of Child Shocks New Year Holidaymakers
PHUKET: The body of a seven-year-old boy lies in a Phuket City hospital tonight after he drowned at a popular Phuket beach this afternoon.
The boy's death shocked lifeguards and tourists at Nai Harn, Phuket's main southern beach. He was pulled with barely a pulse about 2.40pm from the channel that runs under the road between the lagoon and the billabong at one end of the sand.
It was a tragic reminder of the death of a young boy named Max, who drowned on a family outing near the same spot at the same beach on New Year's Day, 2010.
How the boy today managed to enter the channel and why his disappearance was not noted earlier were still unanswered questions this afternoon.
Lifeguards said their duties rested with the beach and the supervision of the billabong and its channel to the lagoon was the responsibility of the Rawai council.
Ironically, Nai Harn is the beach where establishment of a training centre for lifeguards and for teaching local children water safety has been delayed indefinitely because of an argument about who will own the centre.
Rawai council is involved in the dispute. If the centre will prevent more tragedies of the kind that involve Max and today's young victim, who cares who owns it?
The money is ready and waiting to build the centre. Only politics are preventing it being built.
Phuket's drowning toll so far this year appears to be much higher than it should be by comparison with the Phuket road toll.
Latest figures for October show five people died by drowning - and six died on the roads.
In the August-September-October period, 25 people have died on Phuket roads while 11 have drowned at beaches or in canals - an exceptionally high ratio given the number who use the roads compared to those who enter the water.
The boy's family were enjoying their New Year holiday on Phuket after a trip from Songkhla. His body is at Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket City.