THE COST OF BODY RECOVERY VERSUS THE COST OF LIFEGUARDS
Looking at a cost analysis, one might want to look at the cost of the body recovery for the U.S. Coast Guard, the county dive teams, the police departments, and the fire departments as well as the overtime and fuel for the helicopter and boats used in the recovery.
According to the July 3, 2017 CBC News (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) article titled, “U.S. Coast Guard sounds alarm over rising rate of false distress calls,” it costs “an average of $4,500 per hour to send a response boat, while a Coast Guard helicopter search can run as high as $16,000 an hour.”
$16,000 per hour Helicopter
+$4,500 per hour Response Boat
$20,500 per hour
x 24 hours.
$492,000 per 24-hour day just for the Coast Guard response.
Add the city and county resources and you can run almost a $500,000 a day for a single body recovery.
Doesn’t it make sense to spend that money on the front end by providing lifeguards on the beaches? In addition there’s the lost revenue for closing the beach and negative publicity to overcome with the drowning.
Lifeguards make sense… Common sense and financial sense.
