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Eisbach - the surfer wave is being closed

Eisbach - the surfer wave is being closed. How can local authorities prevent possible further accidents without disturbing a perfect tourist attraction?

Two weeks ago a women passed away after an accident on the surfing waves in Eisbach, in Munich. She was surfing and after falling of the surfboard the leash attached to her ankle got stuck on the bottom of Eisbach. Unfortunately she was not able to free her self because she was connected to the board and the current was too fast and too strong.

However, she was rescued by fire officials, who performed resuscitation efforts and took her to the hospital in critical condition. Sadly, that did not help her and her life could not be saved. The local authorities decided to close the Eisbach River wave for surfing indefinitely according to surfertoday.com or until further notice according to bluewin.ch. The explanation is that they want to prevent further accidents.

The reaction

This decision does not seem to be that appreciated as some people believed. On social medias, but also in the online newspapers we can see different post and comment. The reaction is understandable. We can ask ourselves, is closing the Eisbach River wave for surfing a correct decision?

Preventing possible further accidents is a good explanation but does it mean that people do not have right to surf more just because of that? Are we allowed to compare this incident to other daily incidents? What happened in Eisbach River is something horrible, a human being lost her life. People lose their lives on daily basis in different situation and in different sports.

Should all local authorities or governments decide something similar in each sport even though the accidents do not happen that often? Temporary closing something, for attempting to make it better and safer, is acceptable and understandable. But in this case they are maybe closing the surfer wave forever. That sounds like very unfair against all those surfers in Munich, who really love this sport on their Eisbach River. After all, this place is a great tourist attraction.