By: Russell Keener  —  July 17, 2012
 

With sum­mer tem­per­a­tures soar­ing in Geor­gia there’s noth­ing more refresh­ing than a dip in the back yard swim­ming pool, if you are lucky enough to have one.

But while pools may seem to offer a wel­come respite from the heat, as an expe­ri­enced Mari­etta injury attor­ney, I’m also aware they can be death traps.

In late June 2012, a 15-year-old boy, drowned in a back­yard swim­ming pool while he was vis­it­ing rel­a­tives in Radium Springs, Georgia.

The death of Jamar Pon­der was a stark reminder that swim­ming pool acci­dents are more com­mon that we may believe. It’s not clear why the teenager drowned in the pool but the con­di­tion of the pool may have been a fac­tor. Res­cuers said the water in the pool was so murky they could not see the boy at first.

In any given year there are thou­sands of drown­ing deaths in the United States. In 2004, there were 3,308 unin­ten­tional drown­ing deaths across the nation, an aver­age of nine peo­ple per day, accord­ing to the U.S. Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion (CDC).

About one in five of these drown­ing deaths occur in pools. Swim­ming pool injuries are also the fourth largest con­trib­u­tor to sports-related fatal­i­ties in the USA.

Many of these vic­tims are chil­dren. As well as drown­ing deaths, spinal injuries can occur, often when chil­dren dive into pools that are too shal­low. For every per­son who dies from drown­ing, another four peo­ple receive emer­gency care for non­fa­tal sub­mer­sion injuries, which include seri­ous per­sonal injuries such as brain and head injuries.

If your child is hurt or killed in a swim­ming pool you may have grounds to bring a per­sonal injury or a wrong­ful death lawsuit.

In a pub­lic swim­ming pool, the own­ers of the facil­ity can be held liable if there is inad­e­quate life­guard cover or life­guards fail to per­form their job prop­erly. If there are dan­ger­ous con­di­tions at the pool a premises lia­bil­ity or a slip and fall action could be brought.

A premises owner could also be held liable if the deep water was inad­e­quately marked.

There are also a range of prod­uct lia­bil­ity law­suits that can be brought over swim­ming pool acci­dents. Pool toys such as rafts and “water wings” can prove to be defec­tive as well as div­ing boards and pools them­selves can be of a defec­tive or a dan­ger­ous design.

Under Geor­gia law, landown­ers and man­u­fac­tur­ers can be held liable for injuries suf­fered by users in swim­ming pool acci­dent. The Offi­cial Code of Geor­gia says man­u­fac­tur­ers can be held strictly liable for dam­ages if a defec­tive pool or other prod­uct caused injuries. This means the plain­tiff does not have to prove neg­li­gence on the behalf of the defendant.

Own­ers or the occu­piers of land have a duty to main­tain a pool and keep the premises around it in a rea­son­able state of repair. If there is a defect in con­struc­tion the landown­ers have a duty to repair it, if they are aware of it.

If you are injured in a pool there are a num­ber of steps you can take that may affect the suc­cess, or oth­er­wise, of your claim.

If you or a loved one has been involved in an acci­dent in a swim­ming pool, call The Keener Law Firm for a free con­fi­den­tial con­sul­ta­tion at 770–955‑3000.