More Dangerous than a Loaded Gun in Bubba’s House

By Bubba | November 7, 2011 at 10:05 pm | No comments | Home Security | Tags: child safety, diy pool, do it yourself pool, home safety, more deadly than a gun, pool liability, pool safety

When the kids are coming over, everyone rightfully worries about safely stowing the firearms – securing them in gun cabinets and safes and putting on trigger locks. Household poisons and pesticides are put in locked cabinets, medications are put away in childproof bottles. Electric outlets are covered, and everyone frets about all the other little things that a kid can get in trouble with.

But the thing most overlooked is not a little thing. One of the deadliest things lying around many modern homes is the backyard pool or hot tub.

While guns are often associated with fear and violence, we tend to think of pools as fun experiences, tailor made for kids. And most of the time, having a pool in the yard can provide some family memories that will last forever. But scientists tell us that statistically speaking, a pool is more dangerous than a loaded pistol.

In 1997 alone (the last year for which data are available), 742 children under the age of 10 drowned in the United States last year alone. Approximately 550 of those drownings — about 75 percent of the total — occurred in residential swimming pools. According to the most recent statistics, there are about six million residential pools, meaning that one young child drowns annually for every 11,000 pools. About 175 children under the age of 10 died in 1998 as a result of guns. About two-thirds of those deaths were homicides. There are an estimated 200 million guns in the United States. Doing the math, there is roughly one child killed by guns for every one million guns. Thus, on average, if you both own a gun and have a swimming pool in the backyard, the swimming pool is about 100 times more likely to kill a child than the gun is.

The point of this post is NOT to pick a fight with folks who worry about gun safety, or to yammer about the politics of gun ownership.  Bubba hopes that gun owners and non-owners alike will be shocked enough by those statistics that you’ll make pool safety a priority at your house or apartment.

A kid can drown in just a few inches of water, even a plastic inflatable pool is a risk. It just takes seconds. How many news stories have you seen where some grieving relative mourns a child that was lost in the time it took to retrieve a snack from the house. If a child can be revived, oxygen depravation often leaves them with lifelong brain damage.  Even kids that you believe to be strong swimmers can get themselves in trouble.  They run around the pool and slip and fall, they horse around with kids or strange pool toys and find themselves choking on water, they get scared and panic.  Older kids that you entrust to watch the little ones are easily distracted or are unable to perform any kind of rescue, or in the worst case, find themselves in trouble trying to rescue someone else!

What’s a Bubba to do?  There are several things that are pretty much understood to be minimal safety standards.

• Get a pool alarm. These alarms detect a disturbance on the surface of the water. If a child sneaks in for a swim, or falls in while playing, a loud alarm will alert you to the emergency.  Your home should have alarms on the doors that have access to the pool.  Even young children know how to turn a door knob and run out into the yard while you’re busy in the kitchen.
• Put a fence around your pool  If your backyard is already protected all the way around, make sure that gates aren’t left open and driveway or garage access is limited.  Best practices for an apartment complex dictate that a pool be surrounded by a secure fence even if the pool is in a protected courtyard. Gates and fences should have pickets spaced no farther than four inches apart in order to keep curious little heads from poking through. They should be at least four feet tall with no cross pieces or other design elements that allow them to be “climbed”.
• Gates should be locked, or at a bare minimum, completely child proof.  Spring loaded push gates are not going to keep a clever neighbor kid from sneaking into a pool area.  Keep in mind that owning any kind of pool or outdoor water feature is a a tremendous legal liability.  You are responsible for doing everything possible to maintain total control of your pool’s use and access. While it seems a bit “unfair” that you would be held liable for some kid trespassing on your property, for legal purposes a pool would often fall under the “doctrine of attractive nuisance.” This means that if an adult is lurking around your property uninvited and trips over your garden hose, he might come after you in a lawsuit, but he doesn’t have much of a chance in court.  But owning a pool is basically like hanging a bag of candy in your yard with lights shining on it – kids being kids, they’re going to be drawn to it like flies on a banana.  Since you’ve got that attractive nuisance in your charge, you’re going to have to show that you’ve done everything reasonably possible to keep it as safe as possible.
• Get a pool cover.  When not in use, there are some great electric covers that blanket the top of the pool, creating a strong surface that can usually hold the weight of an adult or a couple kids. These pool covers often bring some energy efficiency to a pool as well.  Hot tubs are often sold with optional padded covers. For pool OR tub covers, they must be made so that a wily kid can’t get under an edge to “peek” at the water, (or slip underneath unseen).

    Pool Alarm, in place and ready to sound off if the surface tension of the water is broken. 

• Check with your local government regarding any other pool regulations in your area.  In addition to building codes and fencing requirements, They may suggest or specify additional safety equipment for your pool.  (This will be especially true for rental property.)  Life rings, rescue hooks, drain covers, first aid kits, etc. Even if not required, these things are a good idea.