Swimming Pool Safety & Liability

At the beginning of summer, you hear a lot about swimming pool safety. Because, according to the Red Cross, nearly 200 young children drown every year.  Although organizations have been developed to promote pool safety, increase awareness and reduce drownings, it is still the leading cause of unintentional death among children ages 1 – 4.

If your child suffered a serious swimming pool injury, please don’t hesitate to contact me to discuss your options. You can contact us by phone at 864-235-4999  by clicking the button below or through our contact form.

As a swimming pool injury lawyer, I have seen tragedy strike.  Your child is playing at a neighbor’s house. They happen to have a pool. Your unsupervised child falls in the pool and drowns. Or, your child dives headfirst and gets injured. Can you bring a claim against the owner of the pool neighbor?  If your child drowns or is injured on someone else’s property, you may be able to bring a claim.

And it’s not just kids who can become injured at pools, water parks, and other water recreation sites. Adults have been injured at pools as well.

Adequate supervision is important

Owners of water parks and pools such as local governments, clubs, and neighborhood associations, must take steps to make sure that all users of the pool will be adequately supervised by employing a sufficient number of lifeguards, who are well trained and qualified, to supervise users or guests of the water recreation site.

What are some Common Swimming Pool Injuries?

1. Muscle and joint injuries – Although most adults know not to dive into shallow water head first, these injuries can be caused by jumping into a shallow pool feet first.  Twisted or sprained ankles, feet, knees or elbows can occur if you hit the bottom of the pool.
2. Slips and falls on wet surfaces – We all remember our mom’s yelling “Don’t run around the pool” when we were younger. Now that you are a parent, you know how hard it can be to keep young children from running. But it is important to enforce because slips and falls are very common, especially around in-ground pools. These falls can cause small injuries such as scrapes and bruises, but can also cause serious head injuries.
3. Head injury – As mentioned above, diving head first into shallow water is not safe. However, kids still do it. The result can be catastrophic. A traumatic brain injury (TBI) may occur. This can result in a lifetime of chronic care including extensive rehabilitation and expensive assistive technologies.
4. Drowning – Fatal drowning remains the second-leading cause of unintentional injury – related death for children ages 1 to 14 years. Most children who drown in swimming pools were last seen at home, had not been seen for five minutes or less, and were in the care of either one or both parents at the time of the drowning.
5. Paralysis – a person diving into area of a pool that is unsafe may suffer a spinal cord injury causing paralysis or quadriplegia.

Hiring a lawyer for swimming pool injury

For every one child who dies from drowning, another four children receive emergency department care for nonfatal submersion injuries, according to safety statistics.

Educating yourself and your children about swimming pool safety is the first step in avoiding an injury.

In addition:

• Supervise children at all times
• If you are dropping a child off at a friend’s pool. make sure there will be adequate supervision
• Tell your children to always swim with a buddy
• Keep the pool area free of toys that are not being used
• Fence the area around the pool

When a person is seriously injured or dies while at someone else’s property like a homeowner, city or county-owned pool or water park, club or neighborhood pool, the owner may face liability.

Additionally, the designer or installer of the pool may face liability as well. Swimming pools must be designed safely to accommodate swimmers diving into the pool. The slope of the pool is an important safety consideration in pool design.

As with any personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit, an experienced lawyer for swimming pool injury should be involved.

With increased awareness and organizations such as Pool Safely, National Drowning Prevention Alliance (NDPA), Water Safety USA and others, in addition to laws requiring fencing, we continue to see a decline in injuries and wrongful death from swimming pools.  However, they still occur each summer. These cases are not simple. the Thomas Creech Law Offices is here to help take the burden from you. We will deal with the insurance companies, lawyers and medical providers allowing you to focus on the needs of your family. Call us today or fill out a confidential contact form to schedule a complimentary consultation.