Pinnacle Pool and Spa, Inc. offers water and swimming pool safety tips
Here are some simple safety tips to follow.
Protection:
• Use layers of barrier protection between children and water to warn and impede.
• A non-climbable four-foot fence that separates the pool/spa from the residence. The opening should be no more than four inches wide so children cannot squeeze through the spaces.
• Self-closing and self-latching fence gates, side gates and doors leading to the pool/spa area, with latches above a child’s reach (54 inches high). Gates should open outward.
• Alarms on doors and windows leading to the water, installed about five feet above ground level so that a child cannot reach them.
General Water Safety Tips to Live By:
• When the sun comes out and the weather heats up, community pools open for the season and people head to the beach for the first time. Many lives can be saved and injuries prevented this summer by following some simple water safety tips:
• Learn to swim. The best thing anyone can do to stay safe in and around the water is to learn to swim. Always swim with a buddy; never swim alone.
• Know your swimming limits and stay within them. Don’t try to keep up with a stronger skilled swimmer or encourage others to keep up with you.
• Swim in supervised areas only.
• Obey “No Diving” signs.
• Watch out for the “dangerous too’s”–too tired, too cold, too far from safety, too much sun, too much strenuous activity.
• Don’t mix alcohol and swimming. Alcohol impairs judgment, balance, and coordination affects swimming and diving skills and reduces the body’s ability to stay warm.
• Always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jacket when boating and fishing.
• Know local weather conditions and prepare for electrical storms. Because water conducts electricity, it is wise to stop swimming or boating as soon as you see or hear a storm.
Preparation is Key to Prevention:
Every day, private home swimming pools are becoming more prevalent. Swimming pools are an excellent means of enjoyment for friends and family for most of the year. Swimming pools, however, can be very dangerous if not properly monitored. You must take into consideration the potentially unsafe properties of a swimming pool.
Is drowning a serious problem? Drowning is the number one cause of death for children under five years old in Florida, California, and Arizona. According to government statistics, there are eleven near-drowning incidents for every drowning. Many of these accidents result in totally disabling brain damage.
Supervision is always the primary layer of protection, but as studies show, 69 percent of drowning incidents occurred when parental supervision failed and there were not other “backup layers” in place, such as pool gates (with locks) or alarms on access doors. There can be no compromise on pool safety as it can truly become a life and death situation. Pool rules need to be set and obeyed. A pool drowning is not necessarily an “accident”, it is foreseeable and therefore preventable. Keep your family safe this summer and be prepared!
Learn more about your primary layer of protection, removable mesh pool fences. Right now.
