As summer approaches in New Jersey, one way to beat the heat is to head to the pool. However, as we at Cooper Levenson Attorneys at Law are well aware, pools can be dangerous environments for young children. Therefore, it is important that you take steps to lower the risk of a mishap occurring with your pool.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one way to prevent an accident or drowning is to make sure that young children are properly supervised. If you are having a pool party and some of the attendees will be children, you should make sure that anyone you put in charge of watching the kids is putting their full attention on them. It is too easy for a child to fall into the pool unobserved while the person who is supposed to be watching is distracted by something else.
If the child is going to be in the pool, the person should be standing close enough that the child can be grabbed easily if he or she starts to struggle. Life jackets are a great item to have on hand if there are going to be children around the pool or in it. They help keep the child’s head above water and are one of the safest tools that you can use to prevent a drowning.
If you are not planning to be around the pool, then you should make sure that a child cannot find a way to it. The easiest method for this is to simply put up a safety fence around the pool area. The fence should be outlined with an alarm and have a locked gate that cannot be opened by the child. Additionally, children should not be able to reach the latch on the gate and the latches themselves should have a self-closing mechanism. The height of the fence around the pool should be no less than four feet and the fence itself should completely surround the pool area so that children cannot find an alternate entrance. For more information about accidents that can happen on property, please visit our web page.
