Lifeguard crashes into pier after buoy gets tangled in railing
Witness Hayden Nguyen said he watched in horror as the lifeguard swung into the side of the wooden landing early Monday night.
By Laurie Perez
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SEAL BEACH, California (KCAL, KCBS) — Good Samaritans helped free a lifeguard from the Seal Beach Pier after his buoy tangled around a railing while he tried to rescue someone.
Witness Hayden Nguyen said he watched in horror as the lifeguard swung into the side of the wooden landing early Monday night.
“He had the orange buoy strapped to his wrist,” Nguyen said. “As he tried to jump, the orange buoy got caught on the railing, and he hung for a few seconds. It was pretty scary.”
Another witness, Anibal Aguilar, recorded the entire ordeal and was concerned that the impact knocked the lifeguard unconscious.
“He dived in full force and just swung and hit the pole really hard,” Aguilar said.
In Aguilar’s video, the lifeguard can be heard telling bystanders that he’s alright. People on the pier helped untangle his buoy and threw it into the water.
After being freed, the lifeguard swam over to the person witnesses said either jumped or fell off the pier moments before.
“I thought he got hurt or something, but he was completely fine, it looked like,” Nguyen said.
This is the second incident in four days involving a Seal Beach lifeguard. Last week, 20-year-old Isaiah Osorio suffered a severe spinal injury while on duty as a junior lifeguard instructor. Witnesses said a wave tossed him off his surfboard and he hit his head on the ocean floor.
“He may never walk again,” Osorio’s friend Bailey Nadell said.
Seal Beach’s Marine Safety Department planned to talk about the incidents during a press conference on Wednesday.
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