DAYTONA BEACH SHORES, Fla. — May is National Water Safety Awareness month.

With summer quickly approaching and the temperatures rising, Volusia County emergency and medical response agencies are putting their skills to the test to help prevent drownings along the 47-mile coastline.

Agencies from all over the county conducted three separate mock-drownings to emulate what would happen in the event of a real-life emergency.

It’s a collaborative process that Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue Director, Tammy Malphurs, said can be the difference between life and death.

“It is so critical to train with the people that you’re going to work with in a real-life emergency. You gain familiarity, trust, coordination and then when that emergency happens, you’re more efficient because in a real-life emergency, especially drownings, seconds count,” says Malphurs.

What You Need To Know

  • Local emergency and medical response agencies across Volusia County conducted a series of simulations in Daytona Beach Shores to prevent future drownings

  • As summer approaches, agencies are putting their emergency response skills to the test to be prepared for a real-life emergency

  • According to the CDC, between 2019 and 2021, Florida ranked highest in the country for unintentional drowning deaths among children aged 1 to 4-years old

  • In Volusia County alone, there are an average of 6 to 8 drownings per year, and over 3,000 people that are rescued from the water annually

Drownings are unfortunately all too common in the state of Florida.  

According to the CDC, the sunshine state ranked highest in the country for the number of unintentional drowning deaths among children aged 1 to 4 between 2019 and 2021.

Director Tammie Malphurs from the Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue says that there are an average of 6 to 8 drownings per year, and over 3,000 people that are rescued from the water annually, in Volusia County alone.

Since Central Florida is home to many bodies of water — from beaches to lakes — clinical assistant to the county’s medical director, Ryan McConaughey, says these drowning simulations are all the more necessary.

“Drownings can happen anywhere that there’s water, so here in Florida we have bodies of water everywhere. This is just one type of an incident for pediatric drowning, but we need to prepare for all of them, so it is important for the timing of summer coming up. A lot of people being on the beach and the weather being good,” McConaughey said.

The simulation replicated a scenario where a real person was rescued by Beach Safety.

The person was then brought to shore, where in the event of a real emergency, would have medical treatment, including life support care, performed on the victim.

Response teams then pursued the demonstration on a mannequin, from Daytona Beach Shores to the nearest hospital, which in this case was Halifax Health in Port Orange.

However, if this were a life-threatening situation, then the victim would be air-lifted to the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children.

Several key partners from emergency response teams to medical personnel participated in these three separate drowning simulations.

Among those involved were Volusia County’s Beach Safety, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), and Coastal divisions, along with the Volusia Sheriff’s Office, Daytona Beach Shores Public Safety, the Ponce Inlet and Port Orange fire departments, Halifax Health Medical Center of Port Orange, and the Orlando Health Air Care Team. Physicians and staff from Arnold Palmer Hospital will monitor each team’s progress.