Drowning Wall

 Drowning Wall

Fiction

Steve was going to college and new to the area.  His parents told him do not play in the river or you will drown.  He heard stories about drunk people drowning in the river,  One day someone gave him a tour of different parts of the city.

He was shown the place where people drown in the river.  The story goes that someone was drunk and people were running after him and he continued to run until he fell in the river.

Steve was a lifeguard certified level swimmer and he knew that was not the real cause of death.  The real cause of death was a giant man made wall no one can climb with no ladder.

Even if someone was an olympic level swimmer or lifeguard level swimmer or navy seal or the best swimmer in the world there was a huge problem.  There was no way to get out at least unless you really thought about it for a long time.

Essentially someone who fell into that spot would have to swim forever until they found a spot with land on it to get out of the water.  Even the best swimmer in the world can not swim forever without a break.

Now maybe if the current is not too strong they could try to swim all the way to the other side of the river or follow the wall until it leads to an end where you can climb up to land or walk on shallow water.

Of course someone might say it was ok not to have a ladder because it would be instant death anyway but there are two problems with that.  

First do not presume the person's swimming ability maybe someone skilled enough could swim and survive in that location even if there is a strong current

Second if it is that deadly then at least put a guard rail to keep people from accidentally falling off if they get to close

But you can not put a guard rail everywhere a cliff too steep to climb naturally exists leading to a fall into the water

While you can not put one everywhere such a cliff naturally exists but this was a man made structure so the same person that made the giant wall could have put a ladder on the wall or a rail or slanted it so you can go up the wall if you fall into the water

When Steve got back to his home city he saw another man made wall that you can not climb next to another body of water with no guard rail and no latter

Steve concluded these things are everywhere and hoped some brave and or greedy lawyer would start suing governments to make these things safer. There is no need to create a man-made drowning problem with such walls next to water bodies but offer no man-made solutions such as latters or guard rails. 

Although these structures oppose a danger to all people they especially pose a danger to the blind, children and people in wheelchairs or at least that is one angle Steve thought lawyers could take.  Steve did not like the idea of resorting to making the lawsuit only about disability because these things are a safety hazard to all people not disabled people only but Steve would be ok with it if such a lawsuit changed building design for good on the basis of whatever grounds.