Child Injury Prevention: Safety Tips for Swimming Pools

The deadliest time period for drowning is historically from Memorial Day all the way through Labor Day. While swimming pools are a very popular and fun summer destination, they are a very dangerous place for children when unsupervised. Whether children are swimming in a residential or public pool, the drowning statistics say that most children have been out of sight for no more than five minutes. Accidental drowning is the number one leading cause of death in the United States with children ages one to four. Of the 192 unintentional children’s deaths in Texas, ages one to four, 53 came from drowning in 2007. In 2010, the majority of child drowning deaths have occurred in backyard pools and bathtubs. In past years, children were more prone to drown in lakes, creeks, hot tubs, and even toilets.

Help protect your children from drowning by doing the following:

Never leave your child alone or unsupervised near a pool or body of water.
Make sure a child under five years old is always within an arm’s length of an adult.
Put up a fence to separate from the pool to prevent young children to wander and fall into the pool.

Keep rescue equipment, like a life preserver, by the pool.
Do not use air-filled swim floats as a substitute for approved life vests.
Remove toys from the pool when children are done using them to stop them from reaching for them.
A power safety cover that meets the standards of the American Society for Testing and Materials may be used as additional safety precaution, but not in place of a fence.
After using the pool, make sure to lock the fence surrounding the pool so children are unable to get back in by themselves.
Do not assume that teaching your child how to swim means that they are safe from drowning. Accidents happen.

Drowning can be fatal. And even nonfatal drowning can cause brain damage that may result in long-term disabilities. When trying to avoid the heat, please remember these tips to keep your kids safe in the water.

Dallas/Fort Worth Child Injury Lawyer Mark Anderson can be reached in Fort Worth at 817-294-1900 or in Dallas at 214-327-8000. For a free consultation, please fill out our contact form online.