The 7th annual Visitor Public Safety Conference has been scheduled for Wednesday at the Hawai‘i Convention Center with a new emphasis on preventing drownings in an island state that has the nation’s highest rate of visitor drownings and second highest for residents.
Among the resident drownings, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders disproportionately have the highest death rate.
They make up 27% of Hawaii’s population but about 36% of resident drowning deaths, according to the Hawai‘i Water Safety Coalition, whose representatives will be on this year’s new drowning prevention panel and will discuss the first Hawai‘i Water Safety Plan, which was released this month.
Even more tragic, according to the coalition, less than 2% of Hawaii’s second grade children in public schools have the necessary water skills to keep themselves out of trouble.
“Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders: Samoans, Tongans and Micronesian children are the highest,” said Mufi Hannemann, chair of the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority that’s a sponsor of the conference.
In a state surrounded by water, the reasons are many: Low-income, large families where parents often work multiple jobs and lack the time to teach their children to swim, even if they know how to themselves.
And they might not be able to pay for swim lessons for their children.
Hawaii also needs more public swimming pools where children across the state can learn, Hannemann said.
He grew up in Kalihi and said there are no public pools near the Kamehameha IV public housing project.
North of Kaneohe along the Windward Side, Brigham Young University-Hawaii has the only pool, but it’s not public, Hannemann said.
“We need a swimming pool at Kahuku High School,” he said.
Tourists who are unfamiliar with the power and danger of ocean waves, undertows and rip currents can get in trouble quickly — especially during the annual winter big-wave season underway on Oahu’s North Shore.
Even experienced big-wave riders who live on the North Shore have died.
And people enjoying just watching the ocean who think they are safely on the beach can suddenly get swept out to sea by a rogue wave that reaches deep into the shoreline and pulls them out to sea.
For tourists, Hannemann said airlines might want to consider showing inbound passengers a water safety video — or one highlighting the dangers of the ocean — as they fly to the middle of the Pacific.
North Shore waves were pumping at 30 to 40 feet the night of Jan. 17 when two Mililani teenagers — boyfriend and girlfriend Joseph “Joey” Fujioka, 18, and 17-year-old Samantha Chun — went missing, prompting a search over the next four days.
Fujioka’s remains were recovered about 200 yards off Ke Iki Beach. Chun remains missing.
They parked Fujioka’s Toyota on Ke Iki Road and set up a blanket on the beach around 10:30 p.m., near where they parked, according to police.
Their belongings were recovered from the area, police said.
The annual Visitor Public Safety Conference also focuses on reducing homelessness, crime and increasing safety in Waikiki — an area of only two square miles that’s packed in with 70,000 to 75,000 tourists each night, Hannemann said.
While the conference focuses on Waikiki, the problems and solutions are universal across the state for both residents and tourists, Hannemann said.
“We try to get out in front of problems and challenges and talk about solutions both in the short term and the long term,” he said.
Honolulu remains one of the safest cities in the country, but high-profile crimes — especially against tourists — often grab headlines and go viral, putting the tourism industry in jeopardy, he said.
“At the end of the day, we can tell people what a great place this is to visit,” Hannemann said. “But at the end of the day, if they don’t feel safe coming here, they won’t.”
Panelists at Wednesday’s conference are scheduled to include Honolulu Ocean Safety Acting Director Kurt Lager, Honolulu Prosecutor Steve Alm and other state and city officials, who also will discuss disaster management.
Honolulu Star-Advertiser reporter Allison Schaefers, who helped to write the Hawai‘i Water Safety Plan, also will speak.
Her 5-year-old daughter drowned Feb. 28, 2004, in a Navy housing “retention detention pond” that was designed to reduce the risk of homes getting flooded in a storm and had been swollen with stormwater.
Charlotte Paige Schaefers, affectionately known by family and friends as “Sharkey,” jumped into the pond to save a 3-year-old child who couldn’t swim.
This legislative session, companion bills in the House and Senate — House Bill 1232, HB 1233, Senate Bill 1221 and SB 1222 — would prohibit counties from permitting new retention and detention ponds and require the state Health Department to inspect existing ones across the islands.
The conference has been scheduled with a light breakfast starting at 7:30 a.m., with sessions following from 8 a.m. to noon at the Convention Center’s meeting room 323.
Members of sponsoring organizations are admitted for free, and the general public can buy tickets for $25 by visiting bit.ly/40uSHVd.
Tuesday is the deadline to register.
