Just days after distressed swimmers on Maui stayed afloat using rescue tubes, the governor has signed a law that supporters hope will make it easier for more of them to be installed around the state.
Gov. David Ige signed Senate Bill 2087 into law Friday morning, amending Hawaii’s Good Samaritan Law to include a liability exemption for persons who in good faith attempt to rescue a person with a rescue tube as well as for owners of property where they are located.
“It’s part of the Good Samaritan Law now,” said David Iwana, past president and zone chairman of Hawaii Kai Lions Club, which supported the bill. “So any hesitation has been eliminated now, for liability.”
The bill, introduced by Stanley Chang (D, Hawaii Kai), said the placement of rescue tubes on Kauai and other parts of the state “has led to countless rescues of drowning victims” and that they were easy for ordinary citizens to use in rescuing victims and cost- effective.
Two rescue tube stations are currently installed in East Oahu — one at China Wall and the other at Spitting Caves. The tube, a 4-foot-long flotation device, is the same one used by lifeguards except without metal clips on the end. Five-step visual instructions are printed on each one and featured in online videos.
They have been used in at least four instances to help save lives when people got into trouble in the ocean, according to Eric Kvick, treasurer of the Hawaii Kai Lions Club, which helps maintain them.
Kvick gave away more than 100 of the rescue tubes to community members last year and is part of a grass-roots, citizen-led effort in partnership with the Rescue Tube Foundation on Kauai advocating for them as a way to save lives around Oahu.
On Sunday afternoon Maui firefighters and lifeguards rescued four swimmers in distress on the south end of Keawekapu Beach. Three were found hanging onto one rescue tube, while the fourth was staying afloat on a second rescue tube.
All four made it back to shore when a Jet Ski arrived. The rescue tubes were placed on Keawekapu Beach as a community project funded and maintained by the Rotary Club of Kihei/Wailea.
Though not officially sanctioned by the city or state, community groups have installed the tubes on the four main islands of Kauai, Oahu, Maui and Hawaii. On Kauai the first rescue tube was placed at Larsen’s Beach on the isle’s north shore in 2008. Today there are more than 200 around the isle’s shorelines.
The main concern, according to Dr. Monty Downs of Kauai, an advocate for the tubes, is the fear of liability if a person without the necessary skills goes out with it and the rescue effort does not go well, resulting in a double drowning of both rescuer and victim.
“That’s the big liability: fear,” said Downs, an emergency room physician and president of the Kauai Lifeguard Association. “On Kauai our score is 163 to zero. We’ve documented 163 people that were affected by the use of the tube, and zero with that worst-case scenario.”
While that could happen today, he said he hopes it does not happen.
At the top of every tube, instructions begin with: “If you can’t swim, do not use this device, do not go in the water.” Users of the tube are told to call 911 before going out. Then they swim out and pass the rescue tube to the victim. Then both hang onto the tube and wait to be rescued or swim to shore together.
At the same time, Downs said he has seen several cases of double drownings that occurred because someone attempted a rescue without any flotation aid in the past five years. One was a son who went into the ocean to rescue his father, and the other was a retired firefighter from California who felt compelled to help.
“So double drownings were happening without rescue tubes,” he said. “With a rescue tube your chances are way better of a good outcome.”
Chang said he would advocate for the rescue tubes to be installed at shorelines around the state.
“There’s no reason why they can’t be installed at city parks and beaches,” he said. “In fact, they can be helpful, even at beaches with lifeguards. We would love to continue to roll these out all over the state, especially since visitor drownings are such a common occurrence here in Hawaii.”
ABOUT THE TUBE
More information on the rescue tubes is available at rescuetubefoundation.org. Contact Eric Kvick at eekvick@gmail.com or at Hawaii Kai Lions Club, P.O. Box 25163, Honolulu, HI 96825.
