Safety Pool Fence - Safety Guide

Study conducted by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to find out how child drowning incidents occur indicates that SUPERVISION CAN AND DOES FAIL.

The investigation by the Commission was directed at children under age five in Arizona, California, and Florida who had drown in home swimming pools. The results might help you to better understand why drowning is still the number one killer for three states and stands at number two for the nation:

Who was in charge of supervision at the time of drowning?

69 percent of the accidents occurred while one or both parents were responsible for supervision.
10 percent were adults other than the parents.
14 percent were sitters.
7 percent siblings
What was the location of the pool drowning?

65 percent were in a pool owned by the child's family.
22 percent at a relatives
11 percent happened at a neighbor's.
Drowning happens quickly and without warning. There is no cry for help.

77 percent of the children had been seen 5 minutes or less before being missed and subsequently discovered in the pool.

Where were they last seen?

46 percent WERE LAST SEEN IN THE HOUSE prior to being found in the pool. Of these, 15 percent were thought to be sleeping.
23 percent were last seen in the yard, porch or patio, not in the pool area. That's a total of 69 percent that were thought not to be in the pool area.
31 percent were last seen in the pool or pool area.
What activity was the person responsible for supervision involved in at the time of drowning?

39 percent were doing chores.
18 percent socializing.
9 percent were busy on the telephone.
The suddenness of this type of accident and the results it yields is devastating to anyone it touches. When you think pool, think hard core. Even if this is not your personality, you must be an absolute dictator. Let your children know without any doubts, that is your way or none at all.

LAYERS OF PROTECTION

Supervision is not enough layer of protection, as the study shows, 69 percent of the drowning incidents occurred when parental supervision failed and there were not other "backup layers" in use.

1. Access doors to the pool area with high locks are a secondary layer of protection.
2. Alarms on access doors is another layer of protection.
3. A pool safety barrier (fence) separating the pool from your home and all access doors and entrances is one more layer of protection.
4. Water survival training for a child when he is capable of crawling or walking to the pool.
5. CPR and your knowledge of rescue techniques are a final layer of protection should there be an accident.
   The goal, with instituted layers of protection, is to come as close to a "fail safe" system of preventing drowning incidents as possible. Meaning that if there is a momentary lapse of supervision for whatever reason, we have several backup systems in place.