Unfortunately, it's happened again. A 1-year-old boy from Hudson, Florida was pulled unconscious from a backyard swimming pool, died Sunday. The boy was visiting his grandmother Saturday morning when he fell into the swimming pool after wandering into the pool area through a door that was unlocked or open. Other children who had been playing in the pool earlier had returned to the house. The family told deputies the child was missing just a few minutes before he was found. The sheriff's office is investigating the case as an accident.

Sad isn't it? What's even sadder is that these accidents are preventable.

According to government statistics, drowning is the number one cause of accidental death for children under the age of 5 in California, Arizona and Florida. Nationally, drowning is the second leading cause of accidental deaths to children under 5 years of age. For every drowning there are eleven near drowning incidents, according to government statistics; many of which result in totally disabling brain damage.If drowning were a disease it truly would be referred to as an epidemic with all the public attention and awareness possible focused on an epidemic of such proportion.

The majority of the parents involved were responsible people who thought it could never happen to their family. They were careful and had close supervision over their children. Many were in good income brackets, educated, and could afford nice homes with pools in family oriented communities. So we are literally talking about people who could live next door to you.

A 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?
o69 percent of the accidents occurred while one or both parents were responsible for supervision.
o10 percent were adults other than the parents.
o14 percent were sitters.
o7 percent siblings

What was the location of the pool drowning?
o65 percent were in a pool owned by the child's family.
o22 percent at a relatives
o11 percent happened at a neighbor's.

Where were they last seen?
o46 percent WERE LAST SEEN IN THE HOUSE prior to being found in the pool. Of these, 15 percent were thought to be sleeping.
o23 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.
o31 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?
o39 percent were doing chores.
o18 percent socializing.
o9 percent were busy on the telephone.

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