Quote: ‘The saving of these six lives fully justifies the investment that has been carried out’ – Minister of Justice and Interior, Gabriela Bravo
By Andrew Atkinson
Minister of Justice and Interior, Gabriela Bravo, defended the effectiveness of Drones to prevent drownings amid saving six lives during the summer.
“The deployment of the drones of the Generalitat has saved six lives in direct rescue actions and in all probability, has avoided the risk for many more thanks to the work of surveillance,” said Minister of Justice and Interior, Gabriela Bravo.
The drones of the Agència Valenciana de Seguretat i Resposta a les Emergències de la Generalitat saved six lives from 851 flights spanning over 2,137 kilometers of coastline.
These drones were deployed on the beaches of Cullera, Gandia, Alboraya, Dénia, Xàbia, Benidorm, Guardamar del Segura, Burriana, Peñíscola and Oropesa undergoing 152 hours of flight.
Of the flights, more than half were surveillance – 447 – with another 198 carried out to check the state of the sea in order to complete the meteorological predictions.
83 participated in different kinds of emergencies, while an additional six were decisive in carrying out rescues from 36 carried out on demand by other institutions or agencies.
“Despite lives being saved up until August 31, there have been 33 drownings to regret in the Valencian Community, most of them on beaches,” said Bravo.
“The saving of these six lives fully justifies the investment that has been carried out,” she added.
The Minister of the Interior of the Consell also highlighted the Stop Drowning campaign: “This is to raise public awareness about reckless behaviours that can lead to death since, in most cases, the fatal outcome could have been avoided with responsible behavior,” she said.
The pilot project was launched by the Valencian Agency for Security and Emergency Response to support surveillance and rescue efforts in 10 municipalities with drones.
“From now on we are going to evaluate in detail the results obtained through the use of these unmanned ships to study their possible implementation in all coastal municipalities of the Valencian Community next summer”, said Bravo.
Caption: Deployment of drones of the Generalitat saved six lives in direct rescues.
