This weekend is the unofficial start of summer, and if you’re headed to the beach, make sure to stay safe.
Thousands of people are injured each year because of umbrella-related accidents.
Safety advocates encourage people to weigh them down in the event of large gusts.
In June 2023, two people were injured on Clearwater Beach after a line of storms produced a waterspout, umbrellas went flying and visitors went running.
“These winds, you never know when this big wind is going to come through and just take it. You got all these folks out here, somebody could get hit,” said beachgoer Carla Viviano.
Nearly 3,000 people in the United States are sent to the emergency department due to umbrella-related accidents every year, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
That’s way more than are injured by alligators and sharks combined.
A handful of people have even died after being struck by a flying umbrella, including a woman in 2016 on Virginia Beach.
Sarah Murphy with Beachbub USA says her father created an umbrella that sand weighs down.
“It kind of all started back in 2009 when my dad was sitting on the beach with my mom down in Naples and an umbrella uplifted out of the sand and blew and injured a small child on the beach,” Murphy said.
The American Society of Testing and Materials released a new standard last month to encourage people to better secure beach umbrellas.
The new standard recommends adding 75 pounds of resistance to the base of an umbrella, securing it in winds up to 30 mph.
“I’d agree. When we put our tent up, even though we use these hitches, we still use chairs, bags, coolers. We tend to weigh it down as well because these are oftentimes not good enough,” beachgoer Will Morrison said.
Murphy says the Beachbub was created with safety in mind.
“I would encourage everybody that’s on the beach to take the safety precautions to keep yourself safe and also to keep the other beachgoers safe as well,” Murphy said.