Swimming pool and drowning accidents can result in serious injuries including brain damage or even premature death. Unlike some other types of fatal accident, drowning accidents are often completely preventable so long as landowners and boat owners take proper safety precautions. Of course, not all landowners and boat owners are responsible enough to be concerned about proper safety. This makes it important to understand who is most at risk when it comes to these accidents and what can be done to prevent them.
Young People are at the Greatest Risk of Drowning
According to the Georgia Department of Public Health children between the ages 1 to 4 and people aged 15 to 24 are at a significantly higher risk of drowning than Georgians in any other age range. Among very young children, drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury death. The overwhelming majority of the people killed in drowning accidents are boys or men, who make up four out of every five drowning deaths.
Nationwide around ten people die from unintentional drownings each day. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) one out of every five of these deaths happens to a child aged 14 or younger. For every child who dies as a result of a drowning accident, another five receive emergency care for nonfatal submersion injuries. Nationwide, drowning is responsible for more deaths among children ages one through four than any other cause except birth defects. It is additionally important to note that the fatal unintentional drowning rate for African-Americans is substantially higher than the rate of similar deaths for white Americans in all age groups.
Pool Owners Can Be Responsible for Drowning Deaths
Drowning can happen very quickly, and most of the children aged one to four who drown do so in home swimming pools. While parents can certainly help mitigate drowning risks by teaching their children to swim as early as possible, it is extremely important that pool owners take steps to ensure safety around their pools. Since most home pools do not have lifeguards, premises liability law applies. Part of that law is something called the “attractive nuisance doctrine.” Under this law, if a property owner puts something artificial on his or her property that will by its very nature attract kids (like a swimming pool), then he or she has a special duty to those kids. On the other hand, drowning can be considered an obvious danger of going into the water that even kids can understand. So the point is that each case is different. It depends on what measures (if any) the homeowner took to insure safety as well as the age of the child and the circumstances of the accident.
Contact Goldstein Hayes & Lina, LLC
If your child has been injured in a neighbor’s pool or has died as a result of a drowning accident, you need to speak with an experienced personal injury attorney. You should contact the lawyers at Goldstein Hayes & Lina, LLC as soon as possible. Contact us today for a free consultation.