Nobody in Oceanside likes to think about the possibility of a serious drowning accident in which a child suffers serious or fatal injuries. However, drowning accidents happen with some frequency—especially in Southern California—and it is important for parents to be aware of the risks. Indeed, according to a recent article in the Patch, officials have identified an “alarming spike in juvenile drownings this year” in Southern California, which led to a “public health warning urging families to exercise caution with youth and water.” We are only three months into 2018, and so far four children have died as a result of drowning accidents in the state. To put that number in perspective, four children died in total from drowning incidents in 2017.

Dangers of Backyard Pools in Oceanside

Whether you have a young child or a teenager, it is important to learn more about the risks of drowning, especially if you have a backyard pool. Many preventable drowning incidents happen at home. As the article explains, a child in Riverside County recently died from drowning after riding a toy car into his own backyard pool. The parents thought the toddler was inside the house, only to find him in the family pool after it was too late to resuscitate him. Similarly, a 9-year-old child at a nearby home died after falling into a family pool to retrieve a tennis ball. Nobody at the house found her until 15 minutes after she had drowned.

In response to the high rate of drowning incidents this year, the Riverside University Health System issued a news release designed to warn parents in California about the serious risks of drowning and the importance of being vigilant: “Cases such as these demonstrate how important it is to monitor children anytime they are near any body of water, whether it is a backyard pool, an outdoor sauna, or an indoor bathtub.”

Notably, none of the child drowning deaths reported this year in Southern California have occurred while the child was swimming. Rather, the incidents occurred accidentally while each child was out of the eyesight of parents or other family members.

Getting the Facts About Child Drowning Incidents

How common are child drowning incidents? According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are more than 3,500 drowning deaths, on average, each year in the country. Approximately 20 percent of those drowning fatalities are children who are under the age of 15. As the CDC points out, “for every child who dies from drowning, another five receive emergency department care for nonfatal submersion injuries.”

Even when drownings are not fatal, about 50% of them require that the patient be hospitalized for additional care. A drowning incident, even if it does not result in the death of the child, can cause significant brain damage, which can affect the child’s memory, learning ability, and even basic functioning.

To prevent drowning accidents, the CDC recommends that anyone with a pool at home install four-sided fencing that is at least four feet high, and to use self-closing and self-latching gates to keep children out unless an adult is present. There are also other types of barriers that can prevent kids from getting into a swimming pool when a parent is not present. To remove a child’s desire to enter the pool without an adult, it is important to keep pool toys stored away from the pool itself.

Contact an Oceanside Drowning Accident Lawyer

Spring is here, and more families are using their pools. If you have questions about pool safety or need help with a drowning accident case, an experienced Oceanside drowning accident lawyer can assist you. Contact the Walton Law Firm today.

See Related Blog Posts: Oceanside Residents and the Pool Safety Act California Hotel Liability and Swimming Pool Accidents

(image courtesy of joey banks)

Drowning accidents happen more often than they should in Oceanside and other parts of San Diego County. While many drowning accidents happen at the beach when swimmers are just off the shore, drowning accidents can also occur with some frequency in home swimming pools. In particular, pools can pose serious risks to child safety when they do not have proper guards or barriers. Recognizing the dangers of swimming pool accidents to young children, Governor Jerry Brown recently signed into law the Pool Safety Act (SB 442), according to a recent report from PR Newswire. That law took effect on January 1, 2018, and it “requires new or remodeled pools and spas to have two of seven child protective safety barriers.”

Will the new law help to prevent avoidable drowning accidents in Southern California?

Drowning is a Leading Cause of Death Among California Children

According to the report, numerous agencies including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) cite drowning as the second-leading cause of death for kids in California who are between the ages of one and four. Between 2010 and 2014, “more than 160 children one to four years of age, inclusive, suffered fatal drowning, with the majority of the incidents involving residential pools.”

In addition to drowning deaths, many children in the state have also sustained severe and debilitating injuries. During the period between 2010 and 2015, more than 740 kids in that same age group were hospitalized with injuries caused by a near-drowning incident in a residential pool. Near-drowning accidents can be devastating, often leading to serious and permanent brain injury due to asphyxiation.

How the Pool Safety Act can Help

As we mentioned above, the Pool Safety Act requires that new or renovated homes with residential swimming pools have at least two of the seven child protection features listed in the statute. These features help to keep kids from accidentally falling into a pool, which is how most drowning deaths occur in young children. The law specifically states that all private single-family residential pools must have at least two of the following drowning prevention safety features:

• Enclosure that isolates the pool from the private single-family home;
• Removable mesh fencing with a self-closing and self-latching gate;
• Approved safety pool cover;
• Exit alarms on doors to the home that provide direct access to the pool and issue a noise or verbal warning;
• Self-closing, self-latching device with a release mechanism on the home’s doors that lead to the pool;
• Alarm that alerts when someone enters the swimming pool or spa; and
• Another means of protection that is of equal or greater protection to those listed in the law.

Contact an Oceanside Drowning Accident Lawyer

If you or your child suffered injuries in a drowning incident, an Oceanside drowning accident lawyer may be able to help. Contact the Walton Law Firm for more information.

See Related Blog Posts: California Hotel Liability and Swimming Pool Accidents Could Carlsbad Lifeguards Reduce Drowning Risks?

(image courtesy of Ryan Wilson)

If you are staying at a hotel in Rancho Bernardo with your family, and there is a swimming pool accident, who is liable? Hotel accidents and accidental drowning incidents happen more often than they should. Hotels in Southern California and throughout the country often have signs around pool areas that warn about risks. In some situations, parents sign waivers for their kids to use a hotel pool. Can a hotel still be liable in the event that a drowning incident occurs and a child sustains serious personal injuries?

The facts of each case are different, but it is important to know that warnings and waivers do not always release hotels or other property owners from liability in a swimming pool accident.

Premises Liability and Swimming Pools at California Hotels

If you stay at a hotel, you should be able to expect that the premises will be free from hazards that could result in a serious accident. Likewise, you should be able to anticipate that a pool deck area does not have hazards that could lead to a slip and fall accident or a drowning incident. Hotels owe a duty to keep the premises safe for guests. Under California law, to prove that a hotel breached that duty to its guests, the plaintiff must be able to show the following:

• Hotel was negligent in the use or maintenance of the property;
• Plaintiff suffered harm; and
• Hotel’s negligence was a substantial factor in causing the plaintiff’s harm.

What does it mean for the hotel to be negligent in the use or maintenance of the property? California law clarifies that a hotel can be negligent if it “fails to use reasonable care to keep the property in a reasonably safe condition.” This means that the hotel must “use reasonable care to discover any unsafe conditions and to repair, replace, or give adequate warning of anything that could be reasonably expected to harm others.”

Hotel Swimming Pool Accidents That Could Result in Liability

There are some types of hotel accident cases in which the hotel more clearly bears responsibility for the plaintiff’s injuries. For instance, if there is an unsafe condition around the hotel pool, such as a gaping hole or a broken pool ladder, then it is more likely that the plaintiff will be able to prove that the hotel was negligent in a premises liability lawsuit. However, other situations are trickier.

In instances in which parents rely on a swim instructor or activities instructor at the hotel to provide reasonable care for their kids, then the hotel may be liable, even if the parents sign a waiver. For example, in the California Supreme Court case of Santa Barbara v. Janeway (2007), the parents signed a waiver regarding their child’s swimming at a summer camp. The court held that, while parents can sign a waiver that removes liability in instances of ordinary negligence, such waivers are unenforceable when there are instances of gross negligence.

Yet other situations are even trickier. What if the pool deck does not have any obvious hazards, but it simply has not been updated in a number of years, and the walkway is slicker than it used to be? Does the question of liability change as soon as the hotel posts warning signs? In most situations, a warning sign will help to show that the hotel exercised reasonable care, but it is always important to seek advice from a personal injury lawyer.

Contact a Rancho Bernardo Hotel Accident Lawyer

If you or your child suffered injuries at a hotel in California, an experienced Rancho Bernardo hotel accident lawyer can assist you. Contact the Walton Law Firm today for more information.

See Related Blog Posts: California Supreme Court Sets Precedent for Negligence Claims Liability When Resort or Hotel Guests Get Hurt

(image courtesy of Ryan Wilson)

Whether you are swimming in a pool at your San Diego home or are visiting a neighbor’s house, do you need to be worried about your child’s safety as well as your own? According to a recent article in U.S. News & World Report, swimming pools can become death traps more frequently than most of us would like to believe, especially for young children. As that article explains, around 18 millions homes in the U.S. currently have swimming pools, but drowning is actually the leading cause of accidental death among children 1 to 4 years old. As the article emphasizes, a majority of those unintentional deaths occur in home swimming pools.

While kids under the age of four are at a higher risk of drowning than children in other age groups, it is important to remember that drowning can result in the death of anyone, at any age. For kids under the age of 15, drowning is the second-leading cause of accidental death. As such, it is important to take precautions to prevent your pool from becoming a death trap, as the article warns.

Supervision and Swimming Lessons for Your Kids

The first and most important aspect of pool safety is making sure that your children are supervised at all times when they are in the pool. You should not take your eyes off the pool—even for a minute or two—to read a magazine or to check your email on your smartphone. It takes a short time for a child to drown, and parents need to be aware that supervision is key to preventing drowning accidents in home pools.

Almost as important as adult supervision, you should ensure that your kids know how to swim. Sign your children up for swimming lessons early on and be sure that they know what to do when a water situation becomes dangerous. While your kids are taking swimming lessons, you should consider learning CPR. In the event that a child does have a near-drowning incident in or around your pool, you can have the tools to save a life.

Safeguard the Pool Area

Supervision and swimming skills are key to preventing drowning deaths. At the same time, however, it is essential for parents with home pools to take steps to keep the pool area safe for kids. The article recommends the following tips:

• Completely fence in your pool, ideally using fence of at least six feet in height and three feet away from the pool so that it can be safely scaled without falling in. Not just any fencing will do, either. You should use fencing that does not have any “horizontal footholds of grips that allow kids to climb it.” Additionally, the fence should not have vertical slats that are more than four inches apart, or else a child may be able to slip through those slats.
• Install a gate to your pool area that has “self-closing spring hinges and a self-locking latch that is well out of reach” of children, typically at least five feet from the ground.
• Remove any furniture or other items that kids could use to scale your pool fence, including but not limited to: low-hanging tree branches, chairs, tables, and ladders.

If your child got hurt in a pool accident, you may be able to file a claim for compensation. An experienced San Diego drowning accident attorney can discuss your options with you. Contact the Walton Law Firm today for more information.

See Related Blog Posts: Learning More About Dry Drowning and Secondary Drowning Link Between Drowning Accidents and California Drought

(image courtesy of Matias Romero)