NEW YORK – In an effort to keep residents safe, particularly after numerous tri-state drownings, Nassau County officials have released water safety tips for the summer months.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said drowning is the leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children ages 1 to 4 and the second leading cause of death related to unintentional injuries among children aged 1 to 14 years.
From Memorial Day to Labor Day, on average, 150 children under the age of 15 drowned in swimming pools, officials said, citing 2019 statistics.
According to Nassau officials, simply teaching a child to swim does not make them safe in the water and should be supervised by adults to prevent drowning, adding that even less than an inch of water proves to be dangerous.
Below are tips from Nassau County on how to reduce drowning:
Tips to reduce drowning:
POOL
- Never leave children alone in or near a pool;
- Practice “tactile supervision” (a method of supervision in which an adult is within an arm’s length of a child at all times) with children under 5 years of age;
- If you’re planning a pool party, consider hiring a certified lifeguard to supervise the pool;
- Put up a fence at least 4 feet tall and with self-closing/locking gates higher than the reach of children, to separate your house from the pool and protect young children from wandering off and falling into the pool;
- The CDC recommends that before you get in a pool, make sure you can see the drain at the bottom of the deepest part of the pool to check for cloudy water that will reduce pool visibility;
- Put an alarm on the doors to alert you if a child tries to leave the house to enter the patio where a pool is located;
- Consider a pool alarm that alerts you if someone enters the water; Keep rescue equipment (such as a hook stick or life preserver) and a phone by the pool;
- Do not use air-filled “swimming aids” such as floats as a substitute for approved life jackets;
- Remove all pool toys after use so children aren’t tempted to reach for them;
- After the kids are done swimming, secure the pool so they can’t get back in it;
- Put a safety cover on the pool or hot tub when not in use and remove any ladders or steps used to access it;
- An electrical safety cover that meets American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards can increase protection.
Drain entrapment
Drain entrapment, according to officials, in an incident in which a child’s body part becomes trapped in a drain due to its powerful suction on a pool or hot tub filtration system, or if hair, swimsuit bath or other materials from a child’s body become entangled in the drain. This suction can trap a child underwater.
Because drain entrapment poses such a threat, officials offer the following tips:
- Warn children about the dangers of getting caught in the drain and teach them never to play near a pool drain, with or without a cover;
- Contain long hair when in the water and remove loose parts of swimsuits and jewelry that can get caught;
- Equip swimming pools and hot tubs with an anti-entrapment drain cover and approved safety vacuum release system and ensure covers are free of cracks. Flat drain covers can be replaced with domed ones;
- Beware of public wading pools with missing or broken drain covers.
Ahogamientos en el área triestatal en medio de la escasez nacional de salvavidas
A series of recent drownings in the area has highlighted the importance of swimming safety.
A 2-year-old boy on Long Island was pulled from a backyard pool in another drowning scare Tuesday.
Yellow tape blocked off the residential area around Barbara Drive in Centereach when the toddler sank into a home pool. The boy, whose relatives own the house where the pool is located, was not breathing and was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital. He was said to be in serious condition as of Wednesday morning, according to an update from Suffolk County police.
Also, two weeks ago, two 13-year-old boys, Ryan Wong and Daniel Persaud, were with a group of friends along Jamaica Bay when they fell into the water and were swept away. His funeral was on Tuesday.
Last month, another 2-year-old boy drowned in a backyard pool in Rockland County as the tri-state area experienced unusually warm temperatures.
Drowning deaths are not just limited to New York. Several drownings have occurred in neighboring New Jersey over the past two weeks, both in swimming pools and in open water.
Two people drowned in a New Jersey lake on the night of June 14. Morris County officials said EMS personnel were in the Mine Hill Beach parking lot along Green Road after 5 p.m. when a group told them two people jumped into the sand pits and never he left.
EMS contacted other first responders in the area and immediately conducted a search, which came up empty for the missing 17- and 20-year-olds, authorities said.
Their bodies were recovered hours later.
In another tragedy, two brothers drowned in the indoor swimming pool of a school in Bayonne.
The school pool is open at night for community use, according to a city official, who said a lifeguard was on duty at the time of the incident. Her 11-year-old sister saw what happened, the official said.
The president of the Bayonne school board told our sister network NBC New York by phone that there are two pools on the Lincoln Community School campus: the main pool where community swimming took place and a smaller diving pool that is very deep.
The diving pool was closed and lifeguards were guarding only the main pool, where everyone at the community swim event was supposed to be.
The two teenage brothers, Jack Jiang, 16, and Chu Ming Zheng, 19, drowned in that side-dive pool, the school board official said. However, it was not immediately clear how the pair ended up in that group.
These recent drownings come as the nation, including New York State, is dealing with a lifeguard shortage.
This national lifeguard shortage forced New York City to eliminate several of its swim programs just before the summer months, the city announced earlier this month.
NYC Parks tweeted that several of its swim programs at its outdoor pools are being canceled this summer due to not having enough lifeguards.
“Due to a nationwide lifeguard shortage, we unfortunately will not be hosting swim programs, including Lap Swim, Senior Swim and Learn to Swim, at our outdoor pools this summer,” the tweet read in part.
Additionally, in an effort to address the lifeguard staffing shortage facing New York, Governor Kathy Hochul last week announced salary increases for state lifeguards.
The Governor ordered that starting wage rates for lifeguards at upstate facilities increase 34 percent, from $14.95 to $20 per hour, and 21 percent for lifeguards at downstate facilities, from $18.15 to $22 per hour.
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