A first warning to the parents proved ineffective: that same afternoon, rescuers had to pull two more children from the water, whom no one had been properly supervising.
Child unattended in waist-deep water
The alarm was first raised by the youngest in the family, a boy whom rescuers estimated to be around three years old. He was spotted on the northern shore of the lake, standing waist-deep in water, completely alone, with no adults nearby.
The on-duty team responded quickly and brought the boy back to shore before he could venture into deeper water. The rescue service described what had happened in a post on Facebook.
Conversation with the father led nowhere
Following this incident, the rescue team spoke with the boy’s father, urging him to watch his children more carefully. As it turned out later, the conversation changed nothing.
“Unfortunately, the warning did not have any lasting effect,” the rescue service noted while recounting how events unfolded that same day, August 2.
Within a few hours, the same team had to return – this time for two other children from the family, ages five and seven. According to the rescuers, both children had repeatedly gone under the water near the dock and lost their footing.
Only after the second alarm did the rescue service recommend that the family leave the lake. This time, the rescuers’ instruction was followed without objection.
The problem extends beyond one family
The water rescue service used this incident to remind beachgoers of a situation that on-duty teams regularly encounter at Bavarian waters:
- parents frequently fail to supervise their children adequately near water;
- children often enter the water without flotation devices designed to actually prevent drowning;
- adults themselves sometimes swim so poorly that they would be unable to help in time.
The problem is not limited to this lake near Neu-Ulm. According to the DLRG, the number of drowning deaths in Bavaria in 2025 has increased by 14 people compared to the previous season.
These figures run counter to the broader national trend, where the number of water-related incidents has instead declined. The organization attributes the rise in drowning deaths to adult inattention and overestimation of swimming skills by both children and their parents.
Wasserwacht emphasized separately: arm floaties and inflatable bath toys do not protect against drowning and under no circumstances replace adult supervision of children. This false sense of security, rescuers observe, is most often what leads to situations where a child ends up alone in deeper water – as happened twice at Waldsee over the course of a single Sunday.
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