Life ring saves life at North Avenue Beach days after Gov. Pritzker signs news bill

CHICAGO (WLS) — Of the Nice Lakes, specialists say Lake Michigan has the very best fee of drownings. However simply days after Governor JB Pritzker signed a brand new regulation mandating lifesaving rings be put in on all piers and drop-off factors alongside Lake Michigan, a life was saved at North Avenue Seaside.

“An individual on the lakefront noticed somebody struggling within the water. They stayed dry. They grabbed a life ring,” mentioned Dave Benhamin, co-founder and govt director of Nice Lakes Surf Rescue Undertaking. “They threw it in. They helped pull the particular person out. They saved a life. they put the life ring again. After which everybody went on with their day.”

By the point first responders arrived, everybody was safely out of the water, precisely because the Lake Michigan Rescue Gear Act envisioned.

The invoice was proposed after the loss of life of 19-year-old Miguel Cisneros in August 2021. The Columbia scholar drown in Rogers Park with no life ring close by. Of their anguish, his household campaigned for the act.

READ MORE: Rogers Park drowning sufferer memorialized as life ring battle continues with Chicago Park District

“Simply realizing that Miguel is working his magic, and it is paying off – it is saving lives, which is what we wished because the starting, simply to guard the residents and for no different household to undergo what I am going via,” mentioned his mom Maria Diaz.

The act additionally lays out new pointers for reporting drowning occasions and establishing water security pointers. Plus it requires warnings to be posted in excessive incident areas.

“He was set to be a sophomore at Columbia, however his closing aim was to return again, research regulation, and he all the time mentioned assist his south facet neighborhood. And in a much bigger method, not bodily, as a result of he is now not right here bodily, he is serving to your entire metropolis by making the lakefront safer,” Diaz mentioned.

READ MORE: Mom suing Chicago Park District after son’s drowning in Lake Michigan off Pratt Pier

The Chicago Hearth Division mentioned the person saved at North Avenue Seaside this morning is OK, and refused remedy.

The Chicago Park District says it put in 115 life rings alongside the lakefront earlier than the seashores opened on Memorial Day weekend.