Bourne Leisure, one of the largest providers of holidays and holiday home ownership in the UK, has bought dozens of Ruth Lee Pool Rescue Manikins to help train its lifeguards.
The revolutionary dummies are being used to train over 500 lifeguards at 57 of their sites around the country.
Bourne Leisure welcomes more than 4 million families to their parks, resorts and hotels every year. Their brands, which include Butlin’s, Haven Holidays and Warner Leisure Hotels, are amongst the most respected within the UK holiday market.
The first of a series of training days for 60 of the company’s managers was held in the pool at Thoresby Hall in Nottingham.
The Pool Rescue Manikins are the latest rescue training dummies to be launched by Ruth Lee Ltd. They were developed with assistance from the water safety charity The Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS UK) and have been tested extensively by RLSS UK trained lifeguards.
The 30kg manikins provide a realistic tool for lifeguards to simulate the rescue of a real person who is potentially drowning. They can be thrown into a pool where they quickly sink to the bottom but retain enough buoyancy to be towed effectively.
Craig Valentine, Health and Safety Manager for Bourne Leisure, which has purchased 38 Pool Rescue Manikins, said: “As a company we pride ourselves on maintaining the safety of our guests and our people who use and work in our facilities.
“We operate 130 swimming pools around the country and it is vital that our lifeguards train on the most cutting edge technology that is available. The Pool Rescue Manikins appealed to us because they are so realistic and we can use them in place of human volunteers in a variety of emergency pool scenarios.”
Sarah Hampson from Ruth Lee Ltd, which is based in North Wales and is a leader in the design and manufacture of rescue training manikins, said: “We are delighted to be providing Bourne Leisure with our Pool Rescue Manikins.
“Our manikins provide lifeguards with a realistic challenge which also allows them to learn how to safely manoeuvre people in distress in water.
“Our product brings together different elements of lifeguard training, allowing trainees to seamlessly practice different techniques without needing to switch between different equipment or live volunteers.
“Saving lives is a subject very close to our hearts and the leading driver in all the products we create.”
Ruth Lee Ltd has also seen its Pool Rescue Manikins snapped up by lifeguards in 17 countries including the US, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Malaysia, Estonia, Spain, Brazil and Iceland.
In the UK, drowning is one of the leading causes of accidental death in children and every year in the UK and Ireland more than 700 people drown. Hundreds more have near-drowning experiences, sometimes suffering life-changing injuries.
https://www.ruthlee.co.uk/manikins-dummies/pool-rescue-training-manikin
Watch the Pool Rescue Manikin in action
https://youtu.be/dgYPaeTu09M – General
https://youtu.be/viP_Z4in7pM – What Lifeguards Think
https://youtu.be/MffRKeKl190 – 5m test