Pools lacking safety features contribute to children’s deaths
Are swimming pools inherently dangerous places? Try asking the 24 Houston children who have drowned in pool accidents so far this year — two more than in all of 2007. Their silence speaks volumes.
Even in shallow ends, pools may be too deep for some children to stand with their head above water, and many pools also have a deep end of more than six feet. Pools also may lack sufficient means, such as ladders, for children or anyone to climb out of the water readily.
In nighttime hours, pools also may be poorly illuminated, if they’re lit at all, making it harder to spot a swimmer in distress. And most pools don’t tend to have lifeguards, but if anything just a sign alerting you to what’s already obvious: No lifeguard on duty. Finally, any pool should be surrounded by a fence with a self-shutting gate which prevents toddlers from wandering to the edge and falling fatally into the water.
But how many times have you seen such protections? Pools are pools — concrete and water — and that’s it. They’re designed more for fun — if you’re lucky — than for safety — when you’re not.
This is not to say parents and others can’t and shouldn’t oversee a child’s activity near or in a swimming pool. But it’s difficult to monitor each second of a child’s day, and in public pools such as in apartment complexes, pools may be a magnet for an unsuspecting child to play, despite a parent’s warning or a parent’s nearby — but out-of-sight — presence.
In this week’s drowning death of a 3-year-old boy at a southwest Houston apartment complex, all of these risk factors were in play: an unsupervised child, a pool with no fence or lifeguard and, when the accident occurred around 10 p.m., a pool area with no lights.
In fact, a resident of the complex said searchers were hampered in finding the boy because of darkness and had to use flashlights before spotting him at the bottom of the pool. With proper illumination, searchers might have located him sooner.
The child was innocent and made an understandable mistake. His parents lost track of him, true, but that in itself should not have proven fatal. What proved fatal was a dark yet open pool area which any small child could access, and the lack of proper pool supervision, controls and safety measures.
It’s not enough to build a pool for people’s entertainment. What’s far more important is to safeguard a pool for everyone’s protection, while guarding against anyone’s mistakes. When that isn’t done, tragedies almost inevitably ensue.
If a loved one has drowned because of improper pool safeguards, an accidental drowning lawyer with Jim S. Adler & Associates can help.
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This is difficult for me to even read. I have three boys and my youngest is a few months from being 3 years old. During summer time, we are constantly at the pool. It is a great way to stay in shape, keep them burning calories and away from electronics in general (TV, PSP, gamboys, computer games, toys, etc)
Looking at my kids all the time while they swim is absolutely impossible, and I know that because I have tried. The solution: TEACH YOUR KIDS HOW TO SWIM!!!!
Trust me, kids are smart, if they know what to do, they will not drown. I still pay attention to every move they make, however, I also know that if I was to look away for a minute or so, my kids can swim away from trouble if they have to.
I am not being a bad parent for looking away for two minutes. I’d be a terrible parent if I would assume my boys will be safe at the pool if I am watching them and they do not know how to swim.
Classes are cheap, make the effort please. Teach your kids how to swim. Simple as that!