Children's Safety Zone

As families prepare to celebrate the last 3-day weekend of the summer, the Drowning Prevention Coalition of Arizona stresses the importance of vigilance and layers of protection.

“Distractions and lack of barriers are the most common broken links in the injury prevention chain for drownings,” says Lori Schmidt, President of the DPCA. “This is especially true during holiday weekends. When adults are busy with guests, food preparation and entertaining, children often find themselves with easy access to the water.”

Another scenario that’s common is multiple people poolside but no one watching the water. Adults and children have drowned because everyone assumed someone would notice when there’s trouble.
“Designating someone to be guardian of the water can reduce the risk of drowning significantly in pool party settings,” says Schmidt. “Rotating that duty every 20 minutes between sober, responsible adults who know how to swim can save the lives of those in the water.”

A physical reminder such as a lanyard, wristband or hat that can be exchanged between the “lifeguards” can help. These materials can be obtained for free through the DPCA.

Year-to-date drowning numbers, as reported by the Children’s Safety Zone, indicate that Maricopa County has experienced 41 deaths, including 15 children, resulting from 136 water-related incidents this year.
“We hope to halt these numbers through the end of the year,” Schmidt says. “This can only be done by adults taking responsibility for themselves and their families, and it starts with this Labor Day weekend.”
The DPCA stresses that families should take a 3-pronged approach to drowning prevention: Block, Watch, Learn.

Block: Block access to water hazards. Put fences around pools, use protective covers on spas, close bathroom doors and dump out water buckets. Watch: Watch each other around water. Neither adults nor children should swim alone. And if you lose track of children, always check your water hazards first. Learn: Learn CPR and ensure all family members know how to swim.

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The Drowning Prevention Coalition of Arizona, a community based organization comprised of parents, health and safety professionals and business leaders, exists to provide a forum to prevent drowning and near drowning through the promotion of education, legislative action and enhanced product safety. Check out our website at www.preventdrownings.org for more information.

We are dedicated to saving children this swim season with our Kristi’s Kids, News4 Lifesaver program. We are getting the word out about the A.B.C’s of swim safety.

We caught-up with one our News4 Lifesaver partner Rural/Metro Fire as they took the message to first graders at Ironwood Elementary.

“We’re here because we want to talk to you guys about being water safe.”

Anne Marie Braswell is with Rural/Metro Fire. She’s talking to first graders because, she says, this age group is so receptive.

“And they want to go home and share important information with their parents and their siblings.”

The information she wants them to share?

“The A.B.C.’s are adult supervision, barriers around any body of water, specifically pools. And classes. Specifically swim classes for our kids and CPR classes for adults.”

It’s important for Rural/Metro’s first responders to make an impact on these young kids.

“The worst call that any of our fire fighters can go on, is a pediatric drowning.”

So the kids are hearing about Stuey the duck. They’re filling out work sheets, to help them remember the A.B.C’S. They get to take a Stuey the duck visor home and they make a water safety pledge.

“We really want them to take ownership of their water safety,” says Braswell.

So are the first graders soaking it all up?

“That an adult should always be watching you and you should take classes and…and make sure there’s a fence around the pool,” says first-grader Lucas Martes.

And Isabella Ebert?

“A is for adult supervision. B is for a gate. And then C is for classes!”

First graders are receptive but all kids need to be taught and reminded. Remember, if you’re watching the kids, by the pool we have free water watcher whistles for you. Just swing by the station at 209 W. Elm St. to pick one up.

The traditional start of the summer swimming season – Memorial Day weekend – is quickly approaching. Thousands of children have already flocked to swimming pools to cool off and have fun.

Unfortunately, it has already been a tragic start to year for the many Arizonans. In the first 16 weeks of 2011, there have been nine drowning and near-drowning incidents across the state.

At the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, we believe one incident is one too many. Drowning is a leading cause of death for children, but it is preventable.

In one week’s time, there have been five drownings and one near-drowning in the Phoenix area. Two girls, ages 2 and 3, drowned in Mesa last month; and a 7-year-old girl drowned and two 1-year-old girls nearly drowned in Phoenix. All five incidents occurred in backyard pools. Unfortunately, this scenario is all too familiar.

As a warmer-weather state where children enjoy pools and spas year-round, Arizona is among the top states for drownings and near-drownings of children younger than 15. A look at last year’s pool and spa incidents indicates that the number of injuries and deaths remains too high. In 2010, the media reported more than 530 drowning and near-drowning incidents nationwide and 46 of these were in Arizona.

Each of these incidents represents a family tragedy.

As the chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, I have been traveling the country urging parents and children to follow simple water-safety steps to protect themselves in and around pools and spas. Our national public-education campaign, Pool Safely: Simple Steps Save Lives, aims to reduce childhood drownings, near-drownings and entrapments in and around swimming pools and spas. The campaign was created as part of the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act, which mandated new safety requirements for swimming pools and spas, including a national education campaign.

We all remember – and applaud – the heroic actions of a young boy last month who used a Pool Safely water-safety step – CPR – to save his sister in Mesa.

To pool safely is to watch your children at all times, know lifesaving water skills like CPR or learning how to swim, and ensure you have the appropriate safety equipment installed in your pool or spa. Pool alarms and self-latching gates can help keep the little ones from getting into the pool area. Installing a 4-foot fence around residential swimming pools and spas is another simple water-safety step that can help to prevent an incident. The Pool Safely campaign recommends adopting as many water-safety steps as possible.

With springtime upon us, we need to remind all families about the simple water-safety steps they can take to ensure they are safe this summer and year-round. Adding just one extra safety step around the water can make all the difference. You can never know which safety step will save a life – until it does.

Inez M. Tenenbaum is the chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. For more information, please visit www.PoolSafely.gov.

If you have a pool, you’re probably going to be spending at least part of the next few days in it.

But every person who spends time with children needs to realize having a pool, or any water near kids, is a huge responsibility.

“Justin and Eric were born July 12, 2007,” remembered Elisa Hart.

It was a happy surprise when Hart found out she was having twins, but it was a blessing that would be short lived.

Eric was just 2 1/2-years-old when he drowned in the backyard pool.

Hart still has trouble talking about it and admitting what went wrong that day.

“There was a piece of screen dug up by my dog,” she said.

A big enough chunk of the window’s screen was missing for Eric to climb through.

“There’s just enough space between the Arizona room and the pool, so he knocked himself unconscious, broke his collarbone and slipped right into the pool,” she said.

A year later, there’s a constant reminder that where there’s one little boy there should be two.

Smiling pictures push the Harts to do the impossible — talk about the tragedy in the hope of educating others.

“I hate to say it, but learn from what happened to me,” Hart said.

“It’s been pretty awful this year,” said Lori Schmidt with the Drowning Prevention Coalition of AZ.

But is that unusual?

As far as officials being called out to potential drownings, Arizona is right on track with about 30 by this time of year across the board for the past five years.

But this year, the number of deaths has doubled.

CBS 5 News wanted to know why.

“We have families who are stressed. We have families moving in with their parents,” Schmidt explained.

Schmidt said the economy is a big factor because people are constantly worrying and not as focused as they should be.

She said some are relying on grandparents and other family members to help raise kids, people who might not be as savvy when it comes to safety.

“You have to assume this can happen to you, and you need to know you can prevent it,” she said.

Schmidt said most drownings aren’t a lack of supervision, but a lapse of supervision.

Make sure all your safety precautions are up to date — pool fences, window and door locks and that your window screens are in tact.

And if you do notice a child is missing, check the pools and bathtubs first.

Shaquelle Massey learned CPR and first aid while working at a YMCA camp in Anchorage, Alaska, and it came in handy when he noticed a boy floating at the bottom of his apartment complex pool.

According to The East Valley Tribune, Massey, 19, was walking by the pool at the Fiesta Park Apartments and noticed a boy on the bottom.

“I was just walking by the pool,” Massey said. “When I first saw him, I thought he was playing a joke, but after not seeing him move at all for about three seconds, I knew he was in trouble. I jumped in the pool, pulled him out and called 911. He started coughing and spitting up water.”

Paramedics revived the boy at the scene and took him to Banner Cardon Children’s Medical Center.

Massey is a sociology major at Mesa Community College and plays for the school’s football team.

Ed Swift is the founder of Children’s Safety Zone, a Phoenix-based organization which reports water-related incidents in Arizona and promotes water safety.

He said supervision and barriers are essential to children’s safety around water, and that just because summer is over incidents of drowning continue due to Arizona’s hot weather late into the year.

“Drownings never stop,” Swift said. “They are more prevalent in the summer, but in the fall, pools aren’t too cool to get into yet. You always need to have barriers up and make sure the kids are being watched.”