The Pool Safety Issue !

 Deaths from car crashes have made a welcome retreat back to the days when we mostly drove second hand cars.  Each generation of new models is a safety improvement on the last and survival rates in a crash are ever improving.  To some extent, this improved death toll can be attributed to the coronavirus.

Due to the compulsory lockdown, we are driving less and fewer cars on the road pays a safety dividend.  It seems that vaccines will eventually restore car numbers but the self driving car will take human fingers off the steering wheel.

Unfortunately, the statistics on beach and river drownings is on the increase.  We are relatively safe on popular beaches patrolled by the surf lifesaving movement as long as we swim between the flags, but the privacy lure of remote and unpatrolled beaches has great appeal to many and inland residents head to the local river for a swim when the weather turns hot.

Young men feature heavily in these death statistics, and often because alcohol is involved in their drownings.  They tend to over estimate their ability in the water and when someone experiences a difficulty they make an unwise rescue attempt that is far beyond their ability.   A child in trouble will usually bring a number of adults rushing to give aid.

We are relatively safe when we attend a beach patrolled by lifesavers and elect to swim between the flags. The lifesaver movement now uses drones to extends their coverage and these clever " eyes in the sky " are used to detect sharks swimming inshore and potentially menacing swimmers.

Perhaps an ever bigger problem is the rapid expansion of home swimming pools.  We have experienced a traumatic spate of child drownings and legislation has been enacted to insist that these pools be protected by both safety fencing and self closing gates.  Unfortunately, in some cases this is being ignored.

One of the problems is the availability of above ground pools which come in kit form and which owners usually erect themselves.   They are relatively cheap and many people fail to apply for council approval for their presence, and consequently they undergo no council safety inspection.

Owners are legally responsible if a child from next door or down the road wanders onto their property and gains access to the pool.  A coroners inquest may be scathing if this leads to a drowning and there are plans for councils to use drones to overview their suburbs to detect pools that have not been installed following proper procedure.

Water safety saves lives and having an unsafe pool can lead to prosecution.  There are probably untold numbers of unregistered pools in various states of disrepair scattered across Australia and councils are coming under pressure to locate and bring them under control.

We are just one third of the way into this summer and new above ground pools are a hot seller in the discount industry.  New owners would be advised to make sure they have council approval and the pool meets the legal safety requirements.

Failure to do so might lead to a manslaughter charge if it results in the death of a child !