Protecting Yourself From Pool Accidents

As the Florida summer season approaches and the weather becomes unbearable, people will be heading to the water to cool off. South Florida is one of the cities with the most pools per capita in the world from hotels, motels, and private residences across South Florida. This article aimed is aimed at helping visitors and property owners stay safe by preventing accidents that occur inside or outside of a swimming pool.

In general, swimming pool accidents are usually quite serious for the following reasons:

• Pool areas consist of hard surfaces
• Pool accidents usually include fractures, breaks, or head injuries
• Many pool accidents involve children
• People act like they can’t be injured in a pool. (i.e. people jumping from the roof of their house into a pool)

When a swimming pool accident happens, the injuries may be the result of negligence on behalf of the swimming pool owner or the business operator responsible for the safety of the guests in the case of a hotel, motel, or spa. Nevertheless, people especially property owners need to take special safety precautions when spending time in or around a swimming pool.

What can a visitor do to prevent a swimming pool accident:

• Don’t run or make sudden moves – Slips and falls usually occur when people run, skip, or jump around the pool area.
• Avoid diving – Diving should be left to people with diving experience and done from diving boards. Many times, people suffer head injuries when attempting to dive into the pool from the edge. Get familiar with the shallow and deep ends before attempting to dive or jump in.
• Avoid drunkenness – Excessive amounts of alcohol can lead to injuries from slip and falls, or can lead to drowning when people are too drunk to stay conscious.
• Use sunscreen and get shade-time – Overexposure to the sun can lead to burning, which can lead to infection and ultimately, skin cancer. Young children should never be left in the sun and unattended to.
• Respect the deep end – apart from determining the shallow and deep parts of a pool, staying out of the deep end, unless for diving, is usually recommended.
• Act your age – Being responsible when in or around a swimming pool is fundamental. Acting silly usually results in silly accidents.

What can a property owner do to protect themselves from liability? 

Having a personal pool in your backyard is a great way to beat the summer heat, but it also increases your personal liability. If a friend or neighbor becomes injured while swimming in your pool, you could be subject to a lawsuit to cover medical bills, lost income, and other damages.

Here are some simple things you can do to help reduce your liability while still enjoying your pool.

Build a Fence

The first and most important step to reducing your personal liability for private swimming pool injuries is to prevent them from happening in the first place. Your pool should be fully enclosed with a fence—preferably a fence that is not easy for children to climb over. 

You might worry that a fence will ruin the aesthetic of an open pool. However, when you consider the possibility of accidental drowning, a fence is a small concession. As part of your fence system, include:

•  Gates that self-close. A spring-loaded gate will automatically shut itself. This prevents the possibility of someone leaving the gate open, allowing a child to enter the pool enclosure unnoticed. 
• Childproof latches. Put latches to gates on the inside of the fence near the top to prevent a young child from opening the gate without supervision. 
• See-through panels. Privacy fences can be nice, but the safest fences are transparent. It’s easier to notice and prevent problems if you can see the pool from the house or from other areas of the yard. 

If you will not fence your pool, you should at least fully fence your yard. When company comes, always have someone outdoors watching the pool to keep children away or to supervise water activities.

Post Warning Signs

You can and should post signage detailing the risks of swimming in your pool. Be sure to post that swimmers swim at their own risk. You can also add simple safety rules that every swimmer should follow, such as no diving in shallow water or children under four wearing life jackets. 

When you post the rules, it shows that swimming, literate adults know the risks of swimming in your private pool, assuming some of the responsibility for ensuing injuries.

You should note that posted signs will not completely get you off the hook. You still have a responsibility to make your pool as safe as possible. Stay on top of pool maintenance, and never allow anyone to swim under the influence of alcohol or when any part of the pool is malfunctioning.  

Use a Pool Cover

Another excellent method of preventing accidental drowning is to invest in a complete pool cover. Many pool owners use a bubble cover that simply floats on top of the pool. However, these will not prevent accidental slips and falls into the pool. Use a complete cover that lashes to the side of the pool deck on all four sides, making a taut, impenetrable surface. 

Learn Basic First Aid

In the case of an accident in the pool, drowning is not the only risk. Head injuries, scrapes, and even damaged limbs from pool drains and filters are all potential problems. Be sure that at least one person present at the pool is current in CPR and other basic first aid techniques. 

Reduce Pool Appeal

All pool owners should acknowledge the appeal of their pool to neighboring children. Some lawsuits are based on the doctrine of attractive nuisance, meaning that the pool represents an object that is too appealing for children (or other people of limited capacity to assess risk) to avoid. Your job is to reduce the appeal of your pool to innocent onlookers. 

Some of the above suggestions, such as covering your pool and installing a fence, are methods of reducing pool appeal. You should also:

• Clear toys out of the pool as soon as people are finished swimming. It’s not uncommon for a child to fall in a pool while reaching for a ball. 
• Keep floatation articles like tubes and mats locked away. Don’t store them on the pool deck. Some children feel they will be safe if they use a poolside floating toy. However, these can slip out from under a child. 
• Call your neighbors especially those with children to warn them that you have an operating pool. Parents can teach their children not to enter neighboring pools and remain mindful of where their children are when playing outside. 

As a pool owner, you owe a certain duty of care to maintain a secure pool. If this duty is breached, it can leave you on the hook for extensive damages. Take it seriously.  

Keep Adequate Insurance

In the event you do face a personal injury lawsuit, your home insurance should cover the cost if it is included in your policy. When you install the pool, talk to your insurance agent about the appropriate amount of coverage to account for swimming accidents. 

If you are the victim of an accident, contact Jaime “Mr. 786Abogado” Suarez today!