The disaster on the Jordan River: "You must adapt the level of the hike to the weakest link"

A difficult weekend in the nature reserves in the north: a child who fell from an inflatable boat in the Jordan River was found lifeless after searches by rescue teams. In another incident in the Western Galilee, a 16-year-old boy fell from a height of about 40–50 meters while rappelling.

Dotan Rochman from the Golan Search and Rescue Unit and Israel Cohen from "Kol Berama" addressed the series of difficult events this morning (Monday) on 103FM and warned against the dangers that can occur during hikes in the summer vacation.

Rochman, who was present at the search for the child in the Jordan River, told about the sequence of events: "We, the rescue unit, are alerted to an incident and arrive at the scene. It was not known that it was a drowning. He went downstream, after a few minutes they saw the boat overturned, they understood that something was wrong and then called the rescue forces. Rescue units, firefighters, and police arrived at the scene. There were 20 minutes of work and after that they found him on the bottom."

According to him, during the summer vacation, rescue teams deal with a large number of incidents: "The people of Israel are out in the field, on hikes, and there are many calls. Yesterday, in parallel with this, there were two other rescues."

Rochman called on hikers to adapt the route to the capabilities of all participants and to prepare in advance: "You must adapt the level of the hike to the weakest link. You need to adapt the hike to those who are going on it and research and understand where you are going. You need to prepare with a sufficient amount of water. If you go on an eight-hour hike, half a liter of water is not enough."

Israel Cohen addressed the fact that some of the victims in accidents during the summer vacation come from the Haredi sector: "It is a story that happens every time anew. Not once, in the days of the summer vacation, in the days between Tisha B'Av and the month of Elul, these disasters occur."

According to him, in recent years an attempt has been made to increase awareness of the dangers: "Some of them are indeed from the Haredi sector. In the last three years, there have been campaigns by rabbis to be much more careful on hikes and to go out with water bottles. Boys who study Torah, or children, do not always have awareness of all the nuances and in the end it is expressed in human lives."

Cohen added that he intends to dedicate part of his broadcast to the subject: "I myself intend to dedicate part of the broadcast today on the radio to this story. To talk to people, to talk to rescue units, in order to warn the public: take water, hike only on the regulated trails. Each case is individual. I think that yesterday there was an organized guide. There is the boat that overturned in the Jordan River. It can be a distraction of one second."

"The stream looks calm but it is really not"

Rochman emphasized that even places that look calm can be very dangerous, especially for children: "Yesterday in the Jordan, and similar to the incident we had a few weeks ago with the two girls who also drowned, first of all - supervision. Does the child know how to swim, or not? This is not a pool. This is a river. In the river itself there are steps. Suddenly it can be at a height of 30 cm and then a fall to a depth of a meter and a half or two. And then you can also accidentally swallow water."

According to him, even the members of the rescue unit themselves do not enter the water alone: "Even we, when we enter with life jackets, it is always two together. There is no such thing as one entering alone. Someone is always watching, observing and looking at whoever is in the stream so that we can see if he is in trouble or not. The stream looks calm but it is really not."