Lifeguards Busted For Texting On Duty

Ugh, teenagers. When they’re not endangering their own lives, they’re busy threatening ours.

An NBC 4 New York investigation discovered that lifeguards at the city’s beaches are texting while on duty. Intrepid reporter Jonathan Vigliotti guessed that texting/Snapchatting/Instagramming while on the chair is a “potentially deadly distraction,” so he ventured out to three local beaches to see it for himself.

At his first stop in Coney Island, he saw one lifeguard stare at his phone for nearly one minute before looking at the water. That’s only slightly alarming since a person can drown in just twenty seconds. Since it’s against the Department of Health’s laws to text while on duty, the teens hid their phones under their clothes so they wouldn’t get caught. But the I-Team is on it!

The situation was the same in Asbury Park. Mr. Vigliotti saw four out of 10 guards use their phone and saw a group of them converse like they were “talking around a water cooler.” At his last stop at Jones Beach, he didn’t see as many distracted guards there, but did spot two guards taking selfies and playing on a freakin’ iPad while on duty.

Mr. Vigliotti snitched them out to the Department of Health and the appropriate states’ park departments. They said they plan to take “immediate action.”

We say jail them.