Personal Injury Law

ABC News Investigation Exposes Dangerous Pool Drains In Public Pools and Hotels Across the United States

A recent ABC News undercover investigation found that despite the known danger that pool drains can pose?especially to children?there are still public pools in the US that have yet to install safety drain covers and shut-off valves that are supposed to prevent kids from getting stuck or sucked into a drain?s powerful suction. Defective pool drains can be a premise liability.

During its probe, ABC News discovered that 16 of the 23 hotels pools that it reviewed in different cities across the US are still not safe. Pool Safety Consortium Paul Pennington called the drain covers in many of these pools ?death traps.?

The Virginia Graeme Baker Pool & Spa Safety Act, which is a new federal law that will go into effect later this year, will impose a heavy fine on any public pool that does not install a safety drain cover by December 20, 2008. The law is named after former US Secretary of State James Baker's 7-year-old granddaughter, who drowned after she got caught in the underwater floor drain of a friend?s hot tub. The suction pressure holding Virginia underwater was estimated at 700 pounds, which made it impossible for family and friends to pull her out of the water before she died.

The dome-shaped cover of the government-approved safety drains are designed to keep a child?s body from getting sucked into the drain. They are different from the standard flat drain covers, which do not prevent hair, fingers, or other body parts from getting stuck in the drain. This can lead to evisceration or drowning within seconds.

The Graeme Baker Act mandates that all public pools have a domed drain cover or a very big flat drain to minimize the chances of the dangerous vacuum effect occurring. The new law, however, does not cover private pools.

While over 50 people have reportedly died due to faulty pool drains since the 1980?s, some experts say that there are many more pool drain entrapment deaths that have gone unreported.

'She Died in My Arms': A Mother's Mission for Safe Pools, ABC News

The Virginia Graeme Baker Pool & Spa Safety Act Summary, APSP.org

President Bush Signs Into Law the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety
Act of 2007, Reuters, December 19, 2008

Related Web Resource:

Hidden Dangers of Pool Drains, CBSNews.com, August 1, 2007

Full post as published by Chicago Injury Attorney Blog on September 16, 2008 (boomark / email).