Back-to-school routines shouldn’t distract from pool safety

Marc Lamber

Submitted photo/Lamber Goodnow

As a lawyer who has spent decades representing families after catastrophic injuries, I know that life-changing harm can begin with an ordinary lapse of judgment. Prevention is rarely complicated. It requires people to slow down, assign responsibility and check the safety measures they assume are working.”

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OPINION — As of Aug. 29, Children’s Safety Zone had recorded 126 water-related incidents this year in Maricopa and Pinal counties. Five children age 5 and younger lost their lives.

Yes, school is back in session, but the danger around pools remains present.

Back-to-school season changes household routines. Parents are driving to school, managing sports practices and homework, settling back into work schedules and relying on different family members or caregivers. Who is at home changes. Who is responsible for younger children changes.

Water-safety responsibilities need to be reassigned just as deliberately as school drop-offs and pickups.

Arizona law generally requires qualifying residential pools to be protected by an enclosure. The default standard calls for a barrier at least 5 feet high and gates that are self-closing and self-latching, or secured by an approved locking device, and open away from the pool. The statute includes exceptions and alternative protections, and local ordinances may be stricter.

But the law is only the floor. A barrier protects a child only if it works every time.

Check the pool gate and let it go. Does it close all the way? Does the latch catch every time? Can a young child reach or open it? Has a chair, cooler, planter or piece of patio furniture been moved close enough to help a child climb the fence?

Pool barriers fail in ordinary ways. Gates drift out of alignment. Latches wear down. Fences loosen. Someone props a gate open during a gathering and forgets to close it. A quick inspection can catch those problems before a child finds them.

The same deliberate approach is necessary with supervision.

Before children get in the water, name the person who is watching them. Say it out loud. That person should stay near the pool and watch the water, not a phone, a conversation, the grill or the game. If the water watcher steps away, make an explicit handoff to another adult.

Do not assume several adults around the pool means several adults are watching. Shared responsibility can quickly become no responsibility.

For toddlers and weak swimmers, watching from across the patio is not enough. Stay within arm’s reach. Swimming lessons can reduce risk, but no child is drown-proof, and lessons never replace close, constant supervision.

Check flotation devices, too. The CDC warns that “floaties,” arm bands and water wings can slip off and create a false sense of security. A properly fitted U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jacket offers more protection when one is appropriate. No flotation device replaces an attentive adult.

And ask one more question before anyone gets in the water: Does someone there know CPR? In a drowning emergency, CPR can provide critical help during the minutes before paramedics arrive.

As a lawyer who has spent decades representing families after catastrophic injuries, I know that life-changing harm can begin with an ordinary lapse of judgment. Prevention is rarely complicated. It requires people to slow down, assign responsibility and check the safety measures they assume are working.

Marc Lamber is a trial attorney and personal injury group chair who has practiced law in Arizona for more than three decades. He lives in Paradise Valley. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.