Mendocino officers get new tool to save lives

Mendocino Coast deputies are being armed with a new device to help them save people from drowning.

About the size of a dog-throwing stick, the contraption opens into a horseshoe-shaped life vest when it hits the water.

The aptly named "rescue stick" is compact and has a handle, allowing would-be rescuers to throw the device farther and with greater accuracy than other lifesaving flotation devices, said Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman. And, at just 14 inches long and weighing about 1 pound, it takes up very little room in a squad car.

Had coast deputies been carrying rescue sticks Nov. 29, they might have been able to save a San Francisco physics professor who plunged 20 feet from the Mendocino Headlands bluffs into the churning ocean, he said.

"When our deputy arrived, the gentleman's head and arms were still above the water, and he was waving," Allman said.

But he was 100 feet from land and there were 14-foot swells.

"You couldn't send someone in or they're going to drown too," Allman said.

Search-and-rescue teams, including a Coast Guard cutter and helicopter crew, attempted to rescue Maurizio Biasini, 52, but they lost sight of him as he slipped under the water.

A body that washed ashore at Jug Handle State Natural Reserve in late December is believed to be that of Biasini, but DNA testing will need to be done to confirm the identity, said sheriff's Lt. Rusty Noe.

Biasini was the 15th person, most of them abalone hunters, to die along the Sonoma and Mendocino coasts in 2008.

Allman said he hopes the new device will reduce the number of drowning deaths in his jurisdiction.

Mustang Survival, manufacturer of the rescue stick, says it can be thrown up to 100 feet -- twice as far as a ring buoy or rope bag -- with accuracy.

It does not include a rope to pull the victim to safety. It's intended to keep potential drowning victims afloat until rescuers can reach them.

In July 2007, the device was lauded by the National Marine Manufacturers Association for its innovation.

The rescue sticks retail for about $150 each. Deployed flotation devices can be rewrapped around the handle using a special tool that sells for about $35.

At that price, "why wouldn't you have one on your boat?" Allman said.

He's purchased 15 of the sticks.

Several will be given to coastal state parks patrol officers, and Allman envisions the sticks being stored -- much like fire extinguishers -- at shops located near the Mendocino bluffs, from which a number of people have fallen over the years.

Each of the coast's 11 patrol cars will be equipped with a rescue stick, said sheriff's Capt. Kurt Smallcomb.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com.