Emergency Phones on Coast Urged After 3 Drownings Over Weekend

Divers recovered the bodies of two fishermen Monday morning off the rocky Palos Verdes Peninsula, confirming the second and third drownings in the area over the weekend.

The accidents prompted authorities to discuss installing telephones along the coast to make it easier to report emergencies.

High waves Sunday afternoon were blamed for knocking the two young men off some rocks and into the water a mile southeast of Lunada Bay. Witnesses, including the victims’ girlfriends, called authorities but the men were no longer visible by the time rescue crews entered the water.

“Mother Nature can be dangerous,” said Los Angeles County Lifeguard Lt. Robert Moore. “These guys probably went out at low tide and as the tide rose the surf got pretty radical and knocked them off the rocks.”

Twelve divers returned to the scene Monday at 7 a.m. and found the men, whose identities were not released, about 100 feet off the coast.

A Coast Guard helicopter had seen one man flailing in the water just before 5 p.m. Sunday before he disappeared. Rescue crews gave up their search at sundown about an hour later.

A Palos Verdes Estates woman who spoke to the men shortly before the accident said there were “big crashing waves” hitting the rocks. The woman, Pat Daskivich, called her 15-year-old daughter away from the rocks.

After the men were knocked into the water, one disappeared from view but the second waved at Daskivich when she waved her red shirt and white hat toward the ocean. Daskivich said she believes it took far too long for emergency crews to arrive once the incident was reported, a charge that authorities disputed but are investigating.

Capt. Bill Mangin of the Sheriff’s Department’s Lomita substation said the department is already discussing ways to improve response times, such as installing emergency telephones along the coast or staffing the area with volunteer ham radio operators. Lifeguards staff the coast only during the busy summer months, he said.

The peninsula’s rugged coastline is a popular fishing, surfing and diving spot for those adventurous enough to hike down steep trails to the water. But instead of sandy beaches or piers, there are jagged rocks stretching out into the churning waters.

Accidents and close calls occur frequently, authorities said, but regulars continue to return because of the solitude and rugged conditions of the coves. Last month, a 28-year-old surfer was seriously injured in a shark attack south of Lunada Bay, authorities said.

On Saturday, several miles southeast of Sunday’s drownings, another fisherman was swept to his death off the rocks as five relatives looked on in horror. George Robinson, 57, of Los Angeles was standing on the rocks at Smugglers’ Cove in Rancho Palos Verdes with two sons, two grandsons and another relative when a large wave knocked him into the water.