The weather is getting warmer throughout Ohio and kids are finishing up school and will likely be spending more time playing outside in the coming months. Unfortunately, the long and lazy days of summer vacation can turn disastrous in an instant when a child begins to drown in a lake or in a swimming pool.
Our Columbus accident lawyers know that it only takes a few seconds for a child to go underwater and begin drowning and that it is far too-easy for this to happen, even in a crowd. A drowning accident is a serious emergency, as one family found out when an 8-year-old Ohio boy had to be rushed to Nationwide Children's Hospital after he was found unresponsive in a backyard swimming pool.
Drowning a Serious Danger to Children Over the Summer
According to 10 TV.com, emergency crews were called to the scene of a possible drowning earlier this month. The call came in at around 3:45 P.M. on Sunday, requesting that emergency first responders come to a home on Morris Road where there was an unresponsive child.
The child was an 8-year-old boy who was found in a backyard swimming pool. He was not breathing at the time when he was taken to the hospital. It is not yet clear whether he survived the drowning incident or whether he suffered any permanent damage as a result. Further details may be released to news media once more is known about what happened.
While the specifics of this drowning incident are not yet known, one thing is clear: this incident was not the first time an Ohio child has suffered drowning injuries in a swimming pool and it will not be the last time that a child's life and health are put at risk.
Backyard swimming pools can be fun, but they can also be extremely dangerous. As the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission reports, the majority of drowning accidents and deaths involving children occur in backyard swimming pools.
Kids under the age of five are at the greatest danger of drowning, making up more than 76 percent of deaths due to submersion in pools and swimming pools annually. Kids under the age of 15 are also more likely to be hurt around pools than adults, with kids ages 15 and under accounting for 78-percent of injuries in pools and spas.
Minority children are also at greater risk than Caucasian kids of being injured or killed in a drowning incident. All kids, however, have a very high risk of pool-accident deaths as drowning is the top cause of fatalities for those ages 1 through 4.
Because of the high risk of drowning incidents in backyard swimming pools, CPSC urges every pool owner to put up a secure fence that prevents children from getting into the pool area unsupervised or from wandering into a property with a swimming pool.
If a pool owner failed to ensure that the pool was safe and secure, then the owner could be held liable for compensating the young boy for his injuries or his family for his wrongful untimely death.
If you or a loved one was hurt in an Ohio drowning accident, call the Smith Law office today at 800-930-SCOTT to schedule a free consultation with a seasoned Ohio attorney.
