Female lifeguard impaled by 6ft beach umbrella at Jersey shore after falling off 5ft lifeguard chair at Asbury Park. Episode could’ve been lethal as 19 year old is left with one foot stem protruding out her back after entering through her shoulder.
It could have been tragic… A female lifeguard avoided serious injuries after she was impaled by a beach umbrella along the Jersey shore on Wednesday.
The un-named lifeguard described only as a 19 year old woman was impaled by a roughly 6-foot-long umbrella after falling off her 5-foot lifeguard chair at about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at Asbury Park’s 3rd Avenue Beach, fire officials said.
‘The umbrella went underneath her left shoulder and out the back,’ Asbury Park Fire Chief Kevin Keddy told the nypost. ‘It was protruding by about a foot.’
Beachgoers impaled by beach umbrellas every year
Emergency responders had to use a bandsaw to cut off the stake in order to fit the woman into an ambulance.
‘We had to saw off the stake from the front and the back to make it more manageable. We bandaged her up and transported her to the hospital,’ Kenny said.
The victim, who was conscious and alert throughout the incident, was rushed to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, the official said.
‘When we dropped her off, she was conscious and alert and in good spirits — all things considered,’ Kenny added.
Kenny sought to remind beachgoers to secure their umbrellas in the sand (and to carry them with the point down) to avoid injury.
The spiked end of the umbrellas can become lethal once a gust of wind catches the device’s canopy and sends it flying, according to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The federal agency estimates about 3,000 people are injured by beach umbrellas every year.
While Wednesday’s Asbury Park beach umbrella impaling wasn’t lethal there have been prior episodes which have been.
In 2022, 63-year-old Tammy Perreault was killed after a beach umbrella broke loose from its anchor on a South Carolina beach and impaled her in the torso.
And in 2016, 55-year-old Lottie Michelle Belk was killed by a windblown beach umbrella in Virginia Beach.
