For Special Events, what staffing action is recommended?

• A. Add 2 more lifeguards on the water
• B. Add 1 more lifeguard on the water
• C. No changes
• D. Increase supervision on land

Answer: (A)

Special events bring more swimmers and longer exposure, so safety relies on having enough eyes where incidents happen most: in the water. Increasing lifeguard presence on the water directly boosts surveillance, speeds up recognition of distress, and shortens response times. Adding two lifeguards on the water creates overlap in coverage across zones, reduces fatigue of the regular team, and provides solid redundancy if a rescue is needed. This approach addresses the bigger crowd and potential water activity more effectively than a single additional swimmer on the water, general changes, or shifting focus to land supervision, which helps with crowd control but doesn’t improve water rescue capacity.