Texas Personal Injury Lawyers – Jim Adler & Associates – Blog

Just because summer’s winding down doesn’t mean pool safety isn’t as crucial as it was when school vacations began. That’s because summer has been anything but a vacation from child drowning tragedies, with Houston in 2008 already eclipsing its total child drowning victims for 2007. By the end of July, Houston had 24 child drownings. In all of 2007, it had 22.
Yet another drowning was added to this year’s list on Aug. 11, when a 16-year-old boy who was visiting a cousin at an apartment complex in northwest Houston drowned while swimming by himself. Family members indicated the boy wasn’t a good swimmer, but that didn’t stop him from trying. And since no one was responsible for watching him, it was too late when he was spotted on the bottom of the pool to rescue and save him.Some safety experts say it takes only 20 seconds for a child to drown. That means every child who swims should be closely monitored at all times. Leaving the poolside for even a minute to grab more sunscreen or take a call is hardly worth the possible tragic tradeoff of having a young person drown. So even with summer vacation ending, no one should take a vacation from swimming safety and vigilance.