- Drowning is one of the top causes of death for American children. Every year, 260 children under the age of five die in swimming pools. Never leave children unattended in a pool, not even for a few seconds. If you must step away from the pool, ask a designated person to watch your children while you're gone.
- Young children and babies can sometimes crawl or walk near a pool's edge where all it takes is a trip or a fall for them to end up in the water. This can also occur with your neighbor's children, who may take a shortcut through your yard one day and fall unwittingly into the water. To keep such accidents at bay, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends putting a fence around your pool; it should measure at least 48 inches in height and include a locking mechanism.
- When your pool deck gets wet, it can quickly become slippery. People walking or running on it can therefore slip and experience a painful fall. Minimize this risk by using nonslip coatings on your decks or sidewalks, which can include chemical treatments that texturize your concrete or simply rubber mats that you can lay across the deck.
- If someone dives into your pool and it's too shallow, he can experience broken arms or even a spinal injury. In fact, 90 percent of swimming-related spinal injuries happen in water that's less than 6 feet in depth. The Lifesaving Society recommends not allowing your family or friends to dive into your pool unless your pool's depth measures in at 8.2 feet or deeper.
- The drains that keep your swimming pool's water circulating can create a powerful force of energy. If you get sucked against the drain, it can be so powerful that even adult swimmers can't break free. This creates both physical injury risks as well as risks of drowning. Always inspect your swimming pool before allowing people into it, and don't let swimmers enter if your pool's drain covers are broken or missing.
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