Surf Life Saving New Zealand using standards to help save lives
Surf Life Saving New Zealand newly published complementary guide uses standards to promote best practice for safety around New Zealand’s beaches and coastline.
An AS/NZS standards-compliant beach sign
In 2022 we published Surf Life Saving New Zealand’s (SLSNZ) free Guide to Beach Safety Signs in New Zealand, to be used alongside joint Australian / New Zealand Standard 2416:2010 Water safety signs and beach safety flags.
The standard sets out practices to bring consistent signage for easy recognition along beaches here in New Zealand and across the Tasman, with the free guide providing further context.
SLSNZ has now published a new complementary guide to using Public Rescue Equipment along New Zealand’s coast, written with reference to a number of joint Australian and New Zealand Standards and international ISO (International Organization for Standardization) standards.
A Guide to Public Rescue Equipment for the New Zealand Coast [PDF, 4.5 MB]
Informed public is a safer public
Everybody benefits from consistent and recognisable signage and buoyancy lifesaving aids, so people know what to do when an emergency happens. Like many standards, the guides have been written in response to a need to promote and ensure safety measures. The tragic losses of life in New Zealand beaches and coastline can in many cases be avoided when people make better informed decisions based on better signage and aids developed by consensus of experts.
SLSNZ wish to make its guide available for all New Zealanders to be informed and to stay safe as they enjoy New Zealand beaches and coastline this summer and throughout the year.
Responsible for waterways? Do the right thing
For councils and businesses responsible for bodies of water – whether that’s a community pool, stretch of coast, riverways or lakes – standardised signage and lifesaving aids should be installed based upon a risk assessment, that organisations such as SLSNZ can help with, and using more detailed information found within approved standards. A list of appropriate standards available from Standards New Zealand’s webshop is listed at the back of the guide.
Read more about the tragic circumstances that have led to SLSNZ leading this campaign for better and standardised beach safety and personal rescue equipment:
The Lifesaving Initiative Transforming New Zealand’s Coastline(external link)