Make pool safety a priority - Orlando Sentinel

**Brian Hannigan** · 03-27-2007, 12:17 AM

InspectionNews has found this information related to pools and spas that might be of interest to you.

Make pool safety a priority
Orlando Sentinel, FL - Mar 11, 2007
As a result, drowning is a leading cause of unintentional injury and death for kids younger than 5, especially in warm-weather states such as Florida, ...

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william siegel · 04-01-2007, 09:05 AM

Brian,

Great articles on pool safety. I am going to foward them all to a realtor who just blasted me because I told my buyer that the older pool at the home she was buying was not up to current child pool safety standards. This buyer had no clue as to pool safety. The realtor accused me of scaring her as I explainded how the fences and gates should be installed around the pool.

**Mitchell Captain** · 04-02-2007, 08:32 AM

Stop scaring Realtors. Your job is to inspect not scare.

Captain

K Robertson · 04-30-2007, 10:15 PM

Originally Posted by Mitchell Captain

Stop scaring Realtors. Your job is to inspect not scare.

Captain

"Inspect", but, "don't put it on the report"... How's this one for safety? I think I spent about 2 hours just writing up the pool safety issues on this one.

Tim Moreira · 04-30-2007, 10:17 PM

K.,

I think I spent about 2 hours just writing up the pool section on this one.

2 hours???

It should have taken you 2 seconds to recommend a bulldozer

K Robertson · 04-30-2007, 10:22 PM

Originally Posted by Tim Moreira

It should have taken you 2 seconds to recommend a bulldozer

Here's what makes that so funny, when we walked up to it, he (the client), said "what do you think of the above ground pool?" My reply (which got great looks from his realtor), "Two words, Bull Dozer".

Tim Moreira · 04-30-2007, 10:39 PM

At least we think alike

**Eric Van De Ven** · 05-01-2007, 06:35 AM

At get-togethers at Dawson's house, someone is always the "pool CEO," he says. CEO stands for "constant eyes on," he explains. One of the parents is given a kitchen egg-timer set for 15 minutes and instructed to keep his or her eyes on the pool at all times. After 15 minutes, the duty rotates to another parent.

This is about the only thing I agree with in the article. The most important thing is supervision. All of the other measures can be disabled or by-passed. Some are actually by-passed by the parents.

Ross and other pool-safety experts, including Geoff Dawson, president of The Pool Safety Resource in Longwood, advocate what they call "layers of safety," including barriers, latches and alarms. In other words, you can't depend on just one thing to keep kids safe.

While you at it, tie a rope around your kid and tie the other end to a nearby pole. Maybe an electrified fence as well.

It irritates me when others rely solely on these safety measures to do the job the parents are supposed to do.

**Jerry Peck** · 05-01-2007, 07:05 AM

Originally Posted by Eric Van De Ven

While you at it, tie a rope around your kid and tie the other end to a nearby pole. Maybe an electrified fence as well.

Yeah, and when the kid falls in and starts thrashing around, throw in some laundry detergent and a load of clothes too ...

**Eric Van De Ven** · 05-01-2007, 07:13 AM

Ahh, multi-tasking!

On a more serious note, some statistics regarding drowning in pools versus the ocean:

Broward County - Swim Central Statistics

And some more interesting stats:
Those most likely to die are children under five — about 500 a year.

"These are the accidental drownings that really get to you," says Cobb, "because they are overwhelmingly not big waves that kill small children, but usually safety lapses in or around swimming pools or baths."

The second-highest at-risk group are teens ages 15-19. Over 90% of the estimated 380 accidental drownings in this age group are males, who often ignore safe water practices by diving into shallow water, swimming out too far in a lake or ocean, or who swim without a friend nearby.

Source: USATODAY.com - Surfing model makes waves for water safety