Children's Safety Zone

Authorities say a man from Germany is dead after a kayaking accident at Grand Canyon National Park.

Park officials say 43-year-old Hans Uhl was part of a commercial river trip.

The group had just started its multi-day trip on the Colorado River on Wednesday when park officials received a call around 2 p.m. about an unconscious kayaker at Badger Rapids.

Authorities say Uhl’s kayak capsized and he was unable to right himself.

A safety boat was able to reach the kayak, but authorities say Uhl lost consciousness and couldn’t be resuscitated.

An investigation is being conducted by the National Park Service and the Coconino County medical examiner.

Uhl’s hometown in Germany wasn’t immediately available Thursday.

via German man dies in a kayaking accident at Grand Canyon.

Authorities have identified a man who died after being pulled from the water at Lake Pleasant, northwest of Phoenix.

According to Maricopa County Sheriff’s Sgt. Brandon Uptain, around 1:30 p.m. 38-year-old Nelson Gomez Rivas of Phoenix was trying to swim from one end of a cove near Scorpion Bay to the other and only got about half way when he began to struggle.

Uptain said the victim’s wife asked for help and bystanders pulled her unconscious husband to shore.

Bystanders and deputies performed CPR until paramedics arrived. Rivas was air-lifted to John C. Lincoln Hospital North in critical condition. He later died.

Uptain said Rivas was at the lake with his wife and child. Impairment was not a factor, Uptain said.

via Man drowns after trying to swim across cove at Lake Pleasant – ABC15 Arizona.

Authorities say a man had to be pulled from a lake east of the Valley Sunday morning.

Maricopa County Sheriff’s spokesman Chris Hegstrom said that around 11:30 a.m. the man jumped off a 100 foot cliff into about 17 feet of water at Apache Lake.

The victim was under water for about eight minutes, according to Hegstrom.

Bystanders pulled him out of the water and began “working on him,” Hegstrom said.

He was air-lifted to the hospital where he died.

The victim was identified Sunday night as 50-year-old Kelson Blair of Star Valley.

via MCSO: Man dies after jumping off cliff at Apache Lake

Authorities say a 3-year-old boy has died after being pulled from a pool in Mesa Saturday afternoon.

The incident happened around 2:15 at a home near McDowell and Power Roads.

Mesa Fire Department Captain Craig Chenery said the boy was attending a birthday party at the home and when adults did a head count, they noticed he was missing.

Chenery said party-goers found the boy in the backyard pool and immediately pulled him out and started performing CPR.

When fire crews arrived they transported the boy to Banner Baywood Medical Center where he later died.

Chenery said the home did have a pool fence, so it is unclear at this time how the boy made his way to the pool.

via FD: 3-year-old boy drowns in Mesa pool – ABC15 Arizona.

It can be a quiet killer: A small child wanders out of sight and falls into water — perhaps in a backyard swimming pool, a bathtub or a lake — and slips under the surface. Within minutes, he or she can be severely brain damaged or dead.

“Little kids don’t know what drowning is,” said Tim Szymanski, a member of the Southern Nevada Child Drowning Prevention Coalition. “They slide into water. They’re not going to splash, yell for help.”

Last year, Clark County’s drowning death rate for children 4 years old and younger fell to a new low of 2.05 per 100,000 residents in that age bracket, according to data from the Southern Nevada Health District. Even so, four children younger than 15 died from drowning in Clark County in 2013. Three of the victims were 4 years old or younger. Thirty-six other children 14 and under were rescued and survived after being found underwater last year, according to county data.

Drowning can occur in any body of water, big or small, but backyard swimming pools always pose a great risk. And Clark County certainly has its share — 105,482 pools at single-family homes, to be exact.

In many child-drowning cases, a toy in or around a pool enticed the victim to the area. Then the child fell into the water while trying to retrieve it, Szymanski said. The scenario highlights the need for all objects to be removed from a pool’s vicinity. With pool season here, authorities hope residents remain vigilant when it comes to water safety, so this year’s drowning rate can drop even lower.

“Drownings occur mostly during the warm weather months, but they happen during all of the months here,” Szymanski said.

via ‘Kids don’t know what drowning is’ – Las Vegas Sun News.