By:  LINDSEY O’NEILL, ESQ.

Every time I hear a story about a child injury or death in a swimming pool, I literally feel my heart sink.  When water-related injuries occur at daycare, the families undoubtedly have questions about how this kind of thing can happen. 

According to research done by the Centers for Disease Control, drowning is a major cause of death for children ages 1 to 4.  When it comes to drowning in the swimming pool, fatal accidents can be prevented or minimized with the proper barriers, such as pool fencing.  Barriers can help prevent children from gaining access to the pool area without caregivers’ awareness. 

For residential swimming pools, the CDC recommends the following tips to help prevent injuries:

•  Install a four-sided, isolation pool fence that completely separates the house and play area of the yard from the pool area. The fence should be at least 4 feet high. Use self-closing and self-latching gates that open outward with latches that are out of reach of children. Also, consider additional barriers such as automatic door locks or alarms to prevent access or notify you if someone enters the pool area.

• Remove floats, balls and other toys from the pool and surrounding area immediately after use. The presence of these toys may encourage children to enter the pool area or lean over the pool and potentially fall in.

If there is a lake or another body of water in or around the area, the CDC recommends the following:

•  Know the local weather conditions and forecast before swimming or boating. Strong winds and thunderstorms with lightning strikes are dangerous.

•  Use U.S. Coast Guard approved life jackets when boating, regardless of distance to be traveled, size of boat, or swimming ability of boaters.

•  Know the meaning of and obey warnings represented by colored beach flags.

•  Watch for dangerous waves and signs of rip currents (e.g. water that is discolored and choppy, foamy, or filled with debris and moving in a channel away from shore). If you are caught in a rip current, swim parallel to shore; once free of the current, swim toward shore.

In addition to the tips above, child care providers must usually pass a site inspection and meet other facility requirements in order to receive, and maintain, a license to operate a child care program.  If child care providers fail to adequately comply with applicable regulations regarding water and other safety hazards, they can be found liable for injuries to children occurring as a result. 

The state licensing agency may also face liability for injuries occurring on child day care premises if the licensing agency fails to adequately inspect the facility or negligently awards a license to a facility that does not meet safety regulations.  For instance, in a very sad case, a young child drowned in lake near his child care agency.  The agency apparently did not have the requisite fencing between the facility and the lake, resulting in the child wandering out into the lake.  The family sued not only the child care provider, but also the state Attorney General’s office, for wrongful death, and won an $11.8 million dollar jury verdict in the case.  Read the Tacoma Tribune’s story about the state liable in tot’s death. 

For more information about site inspections, safety requirements for child care programs, and licensing, see LawInfo’s Child Care Resources.