North Carolina Department of Public Safety teaches interns water rescue with special ops, aviation teams

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Interns with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety are learning all about what goes in to water rescues.

On Tuesday, the agency held a water rescue exercise on Lake Wheeler in Raleigh.

“These are techniques and things they’ll remember for the rest of their life that can possibly save their lives,” said Sean Johnson with the NC Highway Patrol. The exercise is a hands-on approach to learning more about what the agency does and why water safety is so important.

“A lot of people don’t understand how powerful water can be or the dangers of it, so just like I did at the beginning is show them the correct way to put their personal floatation devices on and that’s something they’ll take with them the rest of their life,” said Johnson.

Interns learned safety techniques like how to flip an overturned raft and how to put on a Personal Floatation Device (PFD).

“One of the main things that you see out in the civilian population is folks on jet skis or playing around on boats, and they get flipped over or knocked off and they don’t have their PFD on correctly, so during the incident, they get ejected and thrown off the boat,” said Johnson. “Because their PFD is on improperly, they slide out of it and in the process of getting thrown off they can get knocked unconscious and when they slide out of their vest now, you’re dealing with a drowning situation.”

Thomas Parrish is a student at North Carolina Central University. He told CBS 17 the biggest thing he’s learned during the internship is how to work with a team.

“It’s helping build teamwork and also if you get out in an area like this you know how to get yourself out of a sticky situation, so this is a great opportunity and exercise for us to learn,” said Parrish.

Students also got a firsthand look at how the Highway Patrol’s Aviation Unit uses their helicopter for rescues as well.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CBS17.com.