Do any of you across this great land swim at a YMCA indoor facility that does NOT automatically close the pool whenever there are thunderstorms in the area?
Two of our three practices this week have been cancelled because of thunderstorms.
On another thread, someone posted how the total number of deaths from indoor pool electrocutions during thunderstorms--in the history of the world--total precisely zero.
I have made this argument endlessly to our Y authorities, all to no avail. Two university pools--Pitt and CMU--do NOT close their indoor pools because of lightning and, in fact, find the concept chortlesome.
If you do swim at a Y pool with a more enlightened policy, can you send word as to how you got your aquatic staff to override the (misguided) national YMCA policy about this?
Signed--
Slowly desiccating in Sewickley, Pa
There is no downside to this policy, however misguided it may be at times.
So they close the pool for 30 minutes. Total cost to them, basically zero (i.e., what a life gaurd gets paid to do nothing for 30 minutes)
If through some freak accident something DOES happen, and people are in the water and get killed or injured, the resulting lawsuits/settlements will cost multiple millions of $.
You do the math.
Of course there is downside, in fact there is ONLY downside. For one, there has never ever been a single death from lightning, never ever. That alone is enough. Second, since there is absolutely no danger, all they are doing is disrupting their customers' workouts for no reason. In fact, this ludicrous constant closure for lightning caused me to quit the Y.
I think it is highly more likely that some noodler will slip and fall scurrying off the deck during a lightning closure and break her hip. Slip and falls are a common cost for gyms, much more than a never-ever-in-recorded-human-history accident that you seem worried about. So, you do the math - zero $ for an event that will never occur versus the likelihood of a slip and fall suit.
There is no downside to this policy, however misguided it may be at times.
So they close the pool for 30 minutes. Total cost to them, basically zero (i.e., what a life gaurd gets paid to do nothing for 30 minutes)
If through some freak accident something DOES happen, and people are in the water and get killed or injured, the resulting lawsuits/settlements will cost multiple millions of $.
You do the math.
Of course there is downside, in fact there is ONLY downside. For one, there has never ever been a single death from lightning, never ever. That alone is enough. Second, since there is absolutely no danger, all they are doing is disrupting their customers' workouts for no reason. In fact, this ludicrous constant closure for lightning caused me to quit the Y.
I think it is highly more likely that some noodler will slip and fall scurrying off the deck during a lightning closure and break her hip. Slip and falls are a common cost for gyms, much more than a never-ever-in-recorded-human-history accident that you seem worried about. So, you do the math - zero $ for an event that will never occur versus the likelihood of a slip and fall suit.
