Florida experiences tragic 20% increase in fatal child drownings in 2017
In 2016, Florida had 40 fatal child pool and spa drownings for the entire year. The top five states for child pool/spa drownings in 2017 are Florida: 51; Arizona: 25; Texas: 25; California: 20; Georgia: 12.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Pool Safely campaign is urging parents and caregivers to be vigilant any time they’re in or near the water, to follow the Pool Safely simple safety steps, and to take the Pool Safely Pledge to help reverse this tragic trend in 2018. Some steps you can take to ensure your children and grandchildren’s safety this year is as follows:
- Never leave a child unattended in a pool or spa and always watch your children closely around all bodies of water.
- Designate a Water Watcher to supervise children in the pool or spa. This person should not be reading, using a smart phone or be otherwise distracted.
- Learn how to swim, and teach your child how to swim.
- Learn how to perform CPR on children and adults.
- Keep children away from pool drains, pipes and other openings to avoid entrapments.
- Ensure any pool and spa you use has drain covers that comply with federal safety standards, and if you do not know, ask your pool service provider about safe drain covers and ask your public pool if their drains are “VGB compliant.”
- Take the Pool Safely Pledge before spending time in or near the water this year.