It may look like good, clean, daredevil fun when lads leap off the Palace Pier into the sea when there is a heatwave.

But in the past couple of days one man has broken his leg and another received facial injuries - and there will be more accidents to come.

In the past, people have received crippling injuries leaping off the pier and off nearby stone groynes into the sea. Five years ago, one man died.

That's because they do not always know what is in the sea below them and they can break their backs if they land badly in low water.

The youths are stupid. They ignore police and lifeguards, often jeering at them as they carry on jumping.

A council bylaw to ban diving or jumping would be unlikely to have much effect and would be hard to enforce.

But action could be taken by the owners of the Palace Pier to reduce the danger, even if it could not stop the jumpers entirely.

The youngsters usually leap off one small section of the pier fairly close to the shore because it's convenient to swim back and they can show off to large crowds.

Warning notices on the pier are not enough. A physical barrier at this one point would work.

It wouldn't look all that pretty. But then neither does someone crippled through jumping 20ft into shallow water.