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North Carolina Premises Liability: Two Recent Child Drowning Accidents in Hotels Claim Lives

With almost 300 kids under age 5 drowning in pools and spas every year, it is important that spa owners and managers implement all the necessary safety precautions to prevent more North Carolina child drowning injuries and deaths from happening.

Safety initiatives that pool and spa owners and supervisors can take:

? Make sure that the pool is fenced in and that the barricade is high enough to prevent children from being able to climb over or open the gate without adult supervision.
? Don?t allow kids into a pool or spa without adult supervision.
? Install pool alarms just in case a child manages to enter the pool or spa area without supervision.
? Make sure that the person in charge of supervising the pool area is someone that knows how to swim and is actually paying attention to the kids that are in the pool.
? Install the new federally mandated pool and spa safety drains that are designed to prevent kids and adult from getting suctioned to the bottom of the pool or spa and drowning.

Drowning accidents are often fatal. Earlier this month in Raleigh, a 5-year-old boy drowned at the North Hills Club pool. Some 50 people were there attending a party at the time of the tragic North Carolina drowning accident and there were four lifeguards on duty.

According to police, the child went to the pool area with an aunt and uncle. He wandered to the adult pool while they stayed by the children?s pool. A swimmer saw the boy at the bottom of the pool. Lifeguards retrieved the him and they performed CPR while waiting for paramedics. The child was taken to WakeMed where he was pronounced dead.

In May, a Greensboro boy also died n a pool drowning accident. The tragic incident occurred in South Carolina. According to the coroner?s office in Myrtle Beach, Owaes Tabbakh was at the Beach Colony Resort when a lifeguard discovered him floating in a pool. The lifeguard performed CPR on him until paramedics arrived. Emergency workers were unable to revive the boy who was later pronounced dead.

In the event that an adult or child survives a North Carolina or South Carolina drowning accident, he or she may be left with permanent traumatic brain injuries. The drowning victim may require lifelong, round-the-clock, costly medical care.

Child drowns in North Hills Club pool, WRAL.com, June 10, 2009

4-year-old drowns in Myrtle Beach, CarolinaLive.com, May 29, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Pool and Spa Submersion: Estimated Injuries and Reported Fatalities, 2009 (PDF)

Virginia Graeme Baker Pool Spa and Safety Act (PDF)

PoolSafety.gov

Full post as published by North Carolina Injury Lawyer Blog on June 22, 2009 (boomark / email).