3 dead in icy lake

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R56Cooper

Original Poster:

2,487 posts

229 months

Monday 12th December 2022
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Couldn't see another thread but what awful tragic news - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-63944005

The dead boys are 8, 10 and 11. 6 year old remains critical in hospital.

Their friends and families must be going through hell, especially at this time of year.

I shall be reminding my daughters of the dangers of ice.

vixen1700

23,936 posts

276 months

Monday 12th December 2022
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Awful, really awful.


gotoPzero

18,042 posts

195 months

Monday 12th December 2022
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Given their ages I assume the parents were there? I just don't get how people don't see the dangers.


poo at Paul's

14,318 posts

181 months

Monday 12th December 2022
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Mind boggling that kids that young should be out in these conditions alone, and if they were not, if they were being supervised by an adult, what possesses that person to think walking on an iced over lake is anything other than ridiculously dangerous.

Poor kids.

RogerDodgerSuperTodger

5,069 posts

192 months

Monday 12th December 2022
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Very sad.

One of the main things I was (constantly) reminded about when younger, linked to the fact we had a pool with a cover which can yield similar dangers.

wjwren

4,484 posts

141 months

Monday 12th December 2022
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Terrible. It seems to be quarrys in the summer and frozen lakes in the winter that kills countless kids.

deadtom

2,665 posts

171 months

Monday 12th December 2022
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that's awful, must be a hideous way to go, and utterly harrowing for the families.

My friends and I used to play on a frozen pond when we were younger. We weren't totally oblivious to the danger but we 'knew' that it was only waist deep, however in hindsight we didn't really know with any certainty. I don't have kids, but now I'd be terrified to see my nieces / nephews / anyone's young child playing on a frozen pond or lake (in the southern UK at least, where it's rarely properly cold enough to safely freeze over a body of water).

Poor kids, poor families, poor emergency services who had to deal with that frown

Solocle

3,576 posts

90 months

Monday 12th December 2022
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poo at Paul's said:
Mind boggling that kids that young should be out in these conditions alone, and if they were not, if they were being supervised by an adult, what possesses that person to think walking on an iced over lake is anything other than ridiculously dangerous.

Poor kids.
10 and 11 aren't overly young tbh, but kids can be stupid. Back in 2010 I was that age at school, which was shut due to the weather, so it was snowball fights galore for the boarders.

In one fight I decided to try and make my escape by running across an iced over brook. It of course gave way and I got knee deep in cold water. But the threat of that was much lesser than a lake where you could be fully immersed, and I was aware of the risk.

The conditions themselves were fine to be out alone in - deep bodies of water are the particular hazard.

s1962a

5,682 posts

168 months

Monday 12th December 2022
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how awful cry

Quhet

2,495 posts

152 months

Monday 12th December 2022
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Such a horrible situation. It made me think though, as I've noticed a lot of jokey/light hearted videos of people dicking about on ice on things like youtube/instagram/fb which obviously are fairly dismissive of thedangers of doing so. In some it's all seen as rather hilarious when people fall through the ice rather than potentially very serious. I'm not saying this has necessarily been a factor here but I wouldn't be surprised...

Edited by Quhet on Monday 12th December 12:04

Glassman

22,990 posts

221 months

Monday 12th December 2022
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gotoPzero said:
Given their ages I assume the parents were there?
If they were, it's probably an even worse situation. My guess is they weren't.

irc

8,080 posts

142 months

Monday 12th December 2022
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It depends on the lake. My parents lived beside a small loch which we skated on in cold winters perfectly safely having assessed ice thickness. 30 or 40 people out on the loch

Young children of course care not able to assess this risk and should not have been there. Back in the 80s 2 colleagues nearly drowned after going into a canal basin where 2 kids were missing under the ice and 2 adults were drowning having fallen through the ice looking for the kids.

My colleagues fell through the ice trying to get the adults out. They were in the water for 18 to 20 minutes before the fire service arrived with ladders which let them get out on the ice without it breaking.

Final result 3 dead. Both kids and one of their uncles

An equipment failure in our part. The "safety" lines we carried were for throwing to someone in open water and pulling them to the bank. The line was thin so when thrown to my colleagues in the water it repeatedly snapped when we tried to pull them and the guys they were holding up back onto the ice. Though whether anything short of long ladders to spread weight sufficiently would have worked who knows?

This was approx 42 years ago and I can still see clearly the expression on my colleagues faces as we waited for the fire service. They didn't think they were getting out.

Petrus1983

9,460 posts

168 months

Monday 12th December 2022
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Glassman said:
gotoPzero said:
Given their ages I assume the parents were there?
If they were, it's probably an even worse situation. My guess is they weren't.
An awful situation that could be 5 kids now. I’m feeling the parents weren’t there too on the basis I’d expect some adult causalities as well from them going in after to try and save them. Harrowing work for the emergency services.

PurpleTurtle

7,479 posts

150 months

Monday 12th December 2022
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How awful. I grew up in the Midlands, we had Sutton Park (one of the largest urban parks in Europe) with seven lakes in it, all of which would freeze over in harsh winters.

My dad used to tell a story of when he himself was a teenager, some kids went through the ice on one of those lakes, he had to go in and help rescue them, he said it was truly awful cold and even though he was in there for under a minute, and only up to his waist, he really suffered from it.

Consequently we had it drummed into us as kids never to go on frozen lakes, and I recall public information films were shown at the time to warn of the dangers. These things just don't seem to be shown anymore.

fiatpower

3,164 posts

177 months

Monday 12th December 2022
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The lake is in the middle of a housing estate. When I was that age I was allowed out to play in the fields near my house. Wouldn't be too much of a stretch for the kids to wander off and decide to play on the ice instead even if they were warned to stay off. Seems like a tragic set of circumstances.


Strangely if you look on google streetview there seems to be a water rescue taking place with air ambulance, fire service, police and ambulance in attendance when the car went past.

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.4877955,-1.7571085...

Edited by fiatpower on Monday 12th December 12:26

dundarach

5,295 posts

234 months

Monday 12th December 2022
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Horrible.

Being 50 this year I have memories of public information films telling us all about the things which would kill us.

Not sure my children 11 and 13 have seen anything like that.




croyde

23,741 posts

236 months

Monday 12th December 2022
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dundarach said:
Horrible.

Being 50 this year I have memories of public information films telling us all about the things which would kill us.

Not sure my children 11 and 13 have seen anything like that.
I think the public information films worked when we were young as there were only 3 channels and nearly everyone in the country sat down to watch telly together of an evening.

This is a horrific event, can't imagine what the parents are going through, even as a parent myself.

My lot are almost and into their 20s now and still do stupid stuff. Didn't we all do, but we were mainly lucky.

When I left for work this morning the news was that 4 were in hospital and 2 missing frown

ChocolateFrog

27,850 posts

179 months

Monday 12th December 2022
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Isn't there 2 still missing as well?

So potentially 6 fatalities, shocking and really hits home.

Terminator X

15,995 posts

210 months

Monday 12th December 2022
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We used to "skate" on ice as kids although I never ventured too far away from the edge. Scary as hell when you felt the ice crack for sure.

Tragic situation.

TX.

Gareth79

7,978 posts

252 months

Monday 12th December 2022
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ChocolateFrog said:
Isn't there 2 still missing as well?

So potentially 6 fatalities, shocking and really hits home.
I think the fatalities were previously described as not found, so it's 3 dead and 1 "very poorly" in hospital.