Published 21 March 2022
Royal Life Saving Society – Australia board member Detective Sergeant Paul Reynolds has been honoured for services to the ACT community, including his contribution to child water safety reform, with a 2022 ACT Community Protection Medal.
The medal, which was presented on Friday 18 March, recognises the Detective Sergeant’s efforts to reform backyard pool legislation after he was called to the drowning death of an infant in a backyard swimming pool in 2015.
“I started to look into it and found three nearly identical cases of preschoolers drowning in backyard swimming pools in the ACT had occurred in a six month period,” Detective Sergeant Reynolds said.
“The pools weren’t fenced. When I got hold of the Australian Standards, I discovered that because of when the pool was built, it didn’t have to be, which was crazy. We quite rightfully have strict measures around swimming pools in the home environment to keep our kids safe, but they don’t apply retrospectively.
“I pushed hard with the Coroner (to make recommendations to change the law); we knew this would keep repeating if we didn’t do something about it.
“When someone drowns, it devastates not just the immediate family of that one person. It’s like a stone into a pond, there is a ripple effect that echoes throughout the community.”
Sadly, this wasn’t the first drowning to touch Detective Sergeant Reynolds life.
“My best friend from high school, Ben, drowned in 2008,” he said.
“I was involved in the rescue and resuscitation of a young girl, Zartash, from flood waters in 2012. Then River drowned in his grandparents’ pool.
“When I got home, my wife and I were discussing River’s passing, and she said: There’s a real trend emerging here in terms of Ben, the rescue of Zartash, and now River. Something needs to be done; there’s clearly a role for you there.”
Realising drowning must be an issue beyond Australia’s borders, Detective Sergeant Reynolds applied for a Churchill Fellowship to look at the problem from an international perspective.
He was then invited to the World Conference on Drowning Prevention in Vancouver, Canada and sponsored by the Irish Police to go to Dublin and talk to police there about water safety.
“It’s become quite a big thing on a number of levels for my family; my wife and my children as well,” he said.
“I’m now on the Board of Royal Life Saving Society ACT and the Royal Life Saving Society – Australia National Board.
“Aussies love the outdoors and their beaches, and there is often an assumption that we can all swim well and look after ourselves in the aquatic environment, but that has to start from somewhere.
“Water safety education is so important and it requires everyone to be involved, from families to schools and even the greater community. Our lives, and the lives of our children, may depend on it one day”
