Yesterday lunch time some youngsters with apparent access to boat radios called St Francis Bay NSRI out three times on hoax calls.
Several St Francis residents have expressed outrage at the hoaxes especially since the sea rescue body consists of volunteers who risk their lives to save people in critical situations in or on the water and on land too.
Two of the calls yesterday were for reported drownings in the Kromme River while the third was for a boat that was reported as having turned over in the same river.
“At least 10 of my NSR volunteers attended to these calls over the lunch period yesterday; the first one was received about 12 noon,” St Francis Bay NSRI, Station 21 commander, Marc May, said. “When we tried to establish where the youngsters were they hung up. We raced to the river each time and found everything calm; no one had drowned or was in danger and there was no overturned boat.”
“The volunteers all left their families to rush out on these supposed emergencies – only to find out they were hoaxes. This was not only a waste of their time, but a waste of expensive petrol,” May pointed out. “But more importantly, while volunteers were attending to these hoaxes, a real emergency could have arisen, for which the volunteers’ aid plus the rescue vessels and vehicles would have been urgently needed.”
May said after the third false alarm, the callers were told that all further calls to the NSRI were now being traced by the Harbour Master. The NSRI received no more hoaxes for the day.
May reveals that a few years ago NSRI St Francis Bay also received some hoax calls one day. These calls were traced to a girl at school.
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