Florida Swimming Pool Accidents
As summer vacation looms nearer, more and more children and their parents are finding their way to local swimming pools in an effort to beat the summer heat. Although swimming pools do offer a brief respite to Florida residents and provide a way for family and friends to get together and enjoy the outdoors, they are also the sites of serious accidents due to drowning. Young children have proven to be especially at risk of drowning. In fact, according to a recently published government report, around 356 children under the age of 14 years old lose their lives due to drowning every year, with a further 5,900 sustaining injuries serious enough to warrant emergency room treatment. Of those minors who passed away, as many as 77 percent were younger than five years old.
Florida and Texas report the highest number of drowning deaths every year, so it is critical for residents of these states to pay close attention to pool safety this summer. Tragically, no matter how careful a parent or guardian is, a child could still sustain a serious and even life ending injury in a pool within a matter of minutes. When these kinds of accidents can be attributed to the negligence of a pool owner or lifeguard, the injured party could be eligible to recover damages to help compensate them for medical bills and lost wages. To learn more about filing your own claim against a negligent pool owner, please call a member of our swimming pool accident legal team today for advice.
Types of Swimming Pool Accidents
Although injuries resulting from a lack of supervision and an inability to swim can and do occur in Florida, there are actually a number of different ways that a person can be injured in a pool-related accident, including by:
- Slipping and falling on a wet surface;
- Diving into the shallow end of the pool;
- Getting caught in a pool drain; and
- Slipping on a diving board.
While some of these accidents can be linked in some way to a lack of swimming ability, they can also occur as a result of:
- A lack of fencing to protect small children;
- A lack of qualified supervisors, such as a lifeguard;
- Improper pool design;
- A lack of access to safety equipment;
- Inadequate warnings in the pool area; and
- Defective safety equipment.
Accidents resulting from these types of problems are especially tragic because they are almost always preventable.
Who is Liable?
Before a pool owner can be held liable for injuries sustained by a visitor, there must be evidence that the risk that caused the injury was not obvious. If, for example, a child was running alongside a pool and slipped on a clearly visible puddle, his or her parents would have a hard time winning a personal injury suit. However, if a person was walking into the changing rooms of a public swimming pool and slipped on the tile, the color of which camouflaged the wet surface, it is much more likely that the injured party could collect compensation from the pool owner.
Contact Our Legal Team Today
For help determining whether you have a personal injury claim against a negligent swimming pool owner, please call Boone & Davis in Fort Lauderdale at 954-566-9919 at your earliest convenience.
Resource:
poolsafely.gov/parents/safety-tips/drowning-deaths-and-injuries-infographic/
