Media Articles and Coverage

Good Morning America Offers Pool Safety Tips

Broadcast: ABC 05/28/2004
Story: POOL SAFETY TIPS
Correspondent: RON HAZELTON
Location: FAIRFIELD, CT USA


CHARLES GIBSON (ABC NEWS)
The sun rises over beautiful Phoenix. That is a gorgeous shot. All right. We're going to turn to pool safety, which is on many parents' minds because drowning in pools, this statistic amazed me, drowning in pools is one of the leading causes of death for children under five years old. In today's edition of "American Family," our home improvement editor Ron Hazelton is here to take an important and timely look at pool safety. And I say here's here, not literally here. He's actually, I don't know how you get these kinds of cushy jobs, he's at poolside at his own pool with some tips on all of this. He's -at, in Fairfield, Connecticut. Let's take a look at Ron's tips.

RON HAZELTON (ABC NEWS)
(VO) Every year, 250 children under the age of five drown in swimming pools. Just four days ago, four year-old Kyla Dunn's life ended tragically in her grandparents' pool.

GERALD DUNN (GRANDFATHER)
She would be five tomorrow. Tomorrow is her birthday.

RON HAZELTON (ABC NEWS)
(VO) The sad irony is that the child's grandfather had been planning to make the pool safer.

GERALD DUNN (GRANDFATHER)
She's been begging to go swimming, but the pool is not, ironically, we were just, I was just out shopping for privacy fences this Saturday.

RON HAZELTON (ABC NEWS)
(VO) Like many pool accidents, this one happened unbelievably quickly.

GERALD DUNN (GRANDFATHER)
We had been out in the backyard a little bit, brought her inside, used the bathroom. And that quick, and she came out. My daughter dove in and got her.

RON HAZELTON (ABC NEWS)
(VO) Many parents and caregivers mistakenly assume that they will hear a child in distress.

ANITA FOSTER (AMERICAN RED CROSS)
It's a very common misconception that a child will fall in the water and flail their arms and make noise and scream. What happens is a child goes into the water and very silently sinks to the bottom.>

GERALD DUNN (GRANDFATHER)
Don't turn your back for a second. Because they're precious. This was, was my heart.

CHARLES GIBSON (ABC NEWS)
(OC) As we said, a very real problem. And so now, let's go to Ron, who is joining us from his home in Fairfield with some information on how to prevent these kinds of tragedies. Ron?

RON HAZELTON (ABC NEWS)
(OC) Good morning, Charlie. That's, that's an incredibly sad story. And it's, it's so relevant to me, because I have a three year-old child, and I have a swimming pool. And we're heading into that time of the year when we're going to be unfortunately seeing a lot of these stories. There was just another child that drowned two days ago in Utah. Now, the, the thing is that 77 percent or about 3-quarters of these kids were seen within five minutes after they disappeared or were subsequently found in the pool. So, it is just crucial that the first line of defense, of course, is adult supervision. But even there, in 2-3rds of the cases, there was a lapse in that supervision. It actually broke down and failed. So, what we really have to think about here are layers of protection. If one thing doesn't work, then the next thing kicks in.

Starting right here inside the house with any doorway that leads out onto a pool area. It needs to have a lock. Not this one right here, because this one's too low. But I've got to add a lock right up here, out of the reach of a child. The second thing is -an alarm on any door that leads out into a pool area. If I open this up, I've got about seven seconds, this is a battery-operated alarm right here, in seven seconds, that's going to go off and alert me that somebody has passed through this door.

I can disable this by pushing the button right here. The next layer of defense is right out here around the pool itself. We need to have a fence that completely surrounds it. It should be at least four feet high. The space between uprights, if it's this style of fence, should be no more than three inches. This is two. And this is something over here you don't want to do, put a piece of furniture that could serve as a ladder for a child and allow them to climb over the fence. Now, that fence should have a gate. The latch should be on the inside. The gate should open away from the pool. The latch itself should be 54 inches from the bottom of the gate. The gate should be self-closing, self-latching, and it should also have a gate alarm.

Here again, think layers of protection. If that latch doesn't work or there's an obstruction there, the alarm goes off. You know that gate is open. This is a different type of pool fence over here. What I like about this, it's nylon mesh, there's nothing for a child to grab on here to climb over.

It can be installed around a pool and taken out in about 15 minutes to set it up and take it down. It has a self-closing and self-latching gate as well. And what I like about this lock right here is it's magnetic. Very few moving parts. Stands up really well outdoors.

I'm going to put one of these on that gate over there later today. Now we've got our doorways that are locked and alarmed. We've got the fence. We've got the gate. If the, if the child happens to get by all of this, then the next thing we'd want to consider would be a pool alarm. Now, I have installed one over here and I'm going to give, show you how this works. This really operates on a displacement principle.

If a child falls in, they displace a certain amount of water. You can see the ripples moving toward the alarm here. When it reaches the alarm, this will sound. Now, what's really important if you're going to purchase one of these is that you get one that meets ASTM standards, and also that you get one that has a remote alarm inside the house, because that's where you're going to be. Now, this is fine if a child falls into a pool. What if they walk in? Well, you might want to consider this. This is a personal pool alarm designed to be worn around a child's wrist.

It actually locks in place right here. Now, if this gets wet, it sets off a remote alarm that again would be inside the house. And finally, the very last line of defense, as you should know, child and toddler CPR, so that if an accident does happen, you can take the proper action. And also, if a child is missing, go to the pool immediately. Seconds really count here. That's the first place you should look. Charlie?

CHARLES GIBSON (ABC NEWS)
(OC) All right. Thanks very much, Ron. It's an interesting concept to have those layers of defense. And I'm also fascinated at the ...

RON HAZELTON (ABC NEWS)
(OC) Right.

CHARLES GIBSON (ABC NEWS)
(OC) ... at the variety and the number of different kinds of alarms that exist, both inside the house, around the pool, and on the fence that you have surrounding the pool. I'm curious about one thing.

RON HAZELTON (ABC NEWS)
(OC) Right, right.

CHARLES GIBSON (ABC NEWS)
(OC) As I read about this, I heard about something called Poseidon, which is a new ...

RON HAZELTON (ABC NEWS)
(OC) Right.

CHARLES GIBSON (ABC NEWS)
(OC) ...safety system at public pools. What can you tell me about that?

RON HAZELTON (ABC NEWS)
(VO) Well, it, it combines computers and an underwater camera actually. The underwater camera detects a motionless swimmer below the surface. It sounds an alert for the lifeguard and gives them an advanced warning so that they can get in the water quickly and start the rescue operation.

RON HAZELTON (ABC NEWS)
(OC) We hope to see more of this.

CHARLES GIBSON (ABC NEWS)
(OC) All right. All new stuff. Thanks very much, Ron Hazelton. And to get details ...

RON HAZELTON (ABC NEWS)
(OC) You're welcome.

CHARLES GIBSON (ABC NEWS)
(OC) )...on pool safety products, you can learn how to make your pool safer, go to our web-site, abcnews.com.

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