Trust me. When one goes through the ice and disappears, the demeanor of the group will change dramatically for a moment. By the time Patrol 101 arrives on scene, there will be new groups back out on the ice. The lake has been signed in the past. Unforturnately, there is always a language barrier and it is difficult to communicate the danger adequately to those present....
Thanks, Wildman, I don't think it's funny either. Sure, lots of them should know better, but I still think if you're not at least raised to see the dangers of lake ice on the news if not local to your home, it would be easy to assume that if it's 'frozen' that it's hard enough to walk on, especially if others are doing it as well. And before someone points fingers at particular parts of the world, I think the language barrier would also apply to people visiting from other parts of the world. I saw a lot of people possible from pacific rim countries. If I were visiting from say S. Korea where it's dang cold in the winter and didn't understand the weather here, maybe in that case, I might assume the ice was thicker than it is - or, maybe I would know better from experience, I don't know.
Everyone is smart when they've already know the answer. I'm not a big fan of multilingual signage, etc. but I think such public safety concerns are a good exception. Before someone remarks about them being stolen or defaced, well, that's too bad and the cost of doing business. I make jokes about Darwin, too, but in this case I also think of the rescue personnel that will have the vision forever of the frozen child that they pulled out of the lake.
If posted signage doesn't work, why can't we think smarter and come up with a different idea, after all who looks at the No Parking signs elsewhere anyway? What about those portable electric signs? A flashing sign like that would sure get my attention. Is there a model CHP or CalTrans could park at the lake that could at least flash the warning in english & spanish for starters? Just one thought. Now somebody else come up with another idea and let's see if we can effect some change for this problem. It's a small lake, it should be a small, preventable problem.
