A boy's drowning earlier this year has inspired the construction of emergency life-saving stations along the San Mateo County coast, and advocates hope its unveiling Wednesday will lead other coastal communities to do something similar.
Arunay Pruthi, a 12-year-old boy from Fremont, was swept out to sea by a sneaker wave while playing on Cowell Ranch State Beach in January. He struggled for 15 minutes, and a life-saving station with a buoy might have saved his life.
In his honor, Half Moon Bay's Pillar Point Harbor unveiled a trio of emergency stations on Wednesday as part of a just-launched pilot program.
Nineteen people have died along the California coast in riptides and sneaker waves, according to Eric Jones, founder of the nonprofit Sea Valor. That total includes Pruthi.
"I think we all can agree that that number is unacceptable," Jones said in a Wednesday press conference. "These are people that go to the beach to have a nice day. They're trying to be responsible, and they just don't know. They don't know how unpredictable the ocean can be here."
Pruthi's family wants to change that, starting the Arunay Foundation in their son's honor. A spokesperson said Wednesday the nonprofit's goal is to equip "every" public and private beach with similar equipment and to educate schoolchildren about the dangers of beaches.
The U.S. Coast Guard demonstrated search and rescue capabilities with a helicopter plucking a man off a boat at Wednesday's unveiling. The stations' rings are on land and intended to save lives. Each of the life rings has 100 feet of rope attached.
"We have a beautiful, very unique California coastline," Jones said. "But it has unique dangers, and not everybody knows these dangers."
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