Photo by Denese Lups
With summer reaching it’s peak, children of all ages will be spending lengthy days in swimming pools or on the beach. It is imperative that parents place an emphasis on pool safety as the onus is on them to ensure the safety of their children.
RescueCare Paramedics make an appeal to parents to heed safety warnings as cases of drowning increase exponentially during this period when the year draws to a close.
When considering pool and water safety, it is important to educate children of these dangers and also put in place layered barriers which will effectively cordon pools if children are unattended nearby. A tragic reminder of the dangers of South African summers come with death of children from drowning.
Rescure Care Operations Director Garrith Jamieson said that all too often, complacency and lack of awareness with regard to water safety has deadly consequences.
“As Paramedics, the emergency cases involving children are particularly hard to swallow, especially when these life threatening situations are avoidable. In the case of pool safety, vigilance and preparedness on the part of every parent is key to making sure that children and adults alike enjoy their lazy summers by the pool or sea without incident,” he said.
”In most of these cases, if not all, drowning could have been prevented with well-maintained swimming pool fences combined with vigilant adult supervision,” the veteran medic said.
While in depth statistics are unavailable, experience dictates that residential swimming pools are the most common location for drowning deaths of children under five.
This is often the case when children are left in the supervision of a child minder or domestic worker who is easily distracted by other work that needs to be done in the home.
With hundreds of deaths in this manner every year, and thousands more left brain damaged, parents need to be accountable and responsible for their children while on holiday.
When applying safety measures to you pool, it is important to remember that layers of safety measures are the most effective.
The first layer should be a fence around a swimming pool. Unlike pool nets or pool covers, fences are immovable and will always be in place. Make sure children are unable to pass through the gate without your knowledge.
A pool net or cover is an effective measure to then augment this barrier, take caution to ensure that is secured over the pool at all times when not in supervised use.
If you have an alarm system at home, set it to chime to alert if children pass through perimeter doors or through a garden protected by movement beams.
In the event of an emergency, call Rescue Care on 0860 737 911.
Issued by Rescue Care
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