The one thing we should remember when somebody drowns in the river

This week I’ve been thinking about July Fourth.

On that day last year, I was in Woodruff Park waiting for the fireworks to start. To kill some time, one of my sons and I walked down to the Chattachoochee RiverWalk.

I couldn’t believe what I saw.

On the other side of the guardrail are rows of steps leading down to the water, and on this night the river was rushing and churning as usual.

Just hours earlier, rescue teams had suspended their search for Pvt. 1^st Class Michael Ferreira, 23, who’d disappeared in the Chattahoochee on July 3.

Now the steps leading down to the river – the same river that had claimed this combat soldier a day earlier and two other grown men in June – were covered with people.

Everybody was laughing and having a good time. It was dark, but not yet dark enough for the fireworks.

And, I’m not kidding, small children were dancing on the bottom step, inches from the water.

In our city, and in every city, there are things we do that we know we shouldn’t do – these things could kill us or other people – but some of us do them anyway.

Maybe we do them because we think we can do them better or more safely than the other people who do them. Or maybe we just want to do these things so much that we’re willing to take the risk.

This includes drinking and driving. And yes, it also includes texting and driving.

Every single day I see a driver swerving while balancing a phone and attempting to punch the right buttons.

This is stupid and dangerous. Everybody knows it.

And still, an awful lot of people do it, sometimes seconds after criticizing somebody else for doing it.

There’s another thing people do that could easily kill themselves or somebody else: being on or near the Chattahoochee River without a life jacket.

It should be obvious, but here’s how you kill somebody else when you don’t wear a life jacket: you fall into the river, somebody jumps in to save you, and that person dies.

If you are with children on or near the river, they especially should be wearing life jackets.

I’ll never forget the story of Joe Delaney, an NFL running back who couldn’t swim but in 1983 jumped into a retention pond to save three children.

One of them survived. Joe Delaney and the two remaining children drowned.

James Rabon jumped in the Chattahoochee to save his 4-year-old son, Beau, whom witnesses say had fallen into the river while fishing. The 27-year-old man’s body was found on Sunday.

On Friday, when news spread that Beau’s body had been discovered in the Chattahoochee after an intensive nine-day search, one well-meaning woman posted this on Facebook:

“Heartbreaking and my worst fear, this is why every summer my kids take swimming lessons from 2 on up. I’ve got to become a stronger swimmer too just in case. RIP to them both.”

Certainly it’s a good idea for children and their parents to know how to swim, but having this skill won’t ensure your safety, and maybe that’s why other folks on Facebook responded so swiftly.

“Knowing how to swim won’t help in that river, especially if the dam is open,” one of them said.

Most people know this. But they don’t take precautions.

It seems like a good time to repeat something Battalion Chief Keith Watson of the Columbus Department of Fire and EMS said last year after Michael Ferreira drowned:

“I’ve been in this department for 35 years, and I’ve never pulled nobody out of the river deceased with a life jacket.”

Remember that.

This story was originally published April 6, 2018 at 8:42 PM with the headline "The one thing we should remember when somebody drowns in the river."