August 15, 2008

Pennsylvania Swimming Pool and Hot Tub Accidents: Is Your Swimming Pool Safe?

Swimming pools, diving boards and hot tubs often pose a significant risk of serious injury and even death if proper safety measures are not followed. Each year in Pennsylvania, swimming pool accidents claim the lives of many innocent children as well as thousands of adults. Homeowners, hotel owners and apartment owners who have pools owe a small responsibility to provide a safe environment for both children and adults but too many times this does not happen.

Often times a swimming pool draws children like a magnet that swimming pool accidents are the second leading cause of death for children under the age of 14. Each year in the United States, 1,000 children die and 5,000 others are hospitalized with catastrophic injuries due to swimming-related accidents. Unbelievably, drowning is the leading cause of death among children from ages 2-4. When a child submerges for 2 minutes or more in the water, the child loses consciousness. Irreversible brain damage sets in after 4-6 minutes of water submersion.

Diving board accidents or dives into shallow pools are responsible for about 10% of all catastrophic spinal cord injuries. The lawyers at the Pennsylvania personal injury attorneys and swimming pool injury law firm of Reiff and Bily have represented numerous Pennsylvania families and individuals who have suffered injury or death as the result of swimming accidents. Most swimming pool injuries occur because of improper design or improper construction or failure to properly secure the pool from small children or failure to maintain the pool in good condition.

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May 21, 2008

Is Your Swimming Pool Safe? Hidden Danger Lies in Unprotected Drains

With summer and beautiful weather approaching, pool use is on the rise. With proper pool use comes safety to prevent hazards. Drowning is the number two accidental injury-related killer of children ages one to fourteen. There are approximately 260 drowning deaths of children younger than age five each year in the swimming pools and an estimated 2,725 children are treated annually in hospital emergency rooms for pool submersion injuries, mostly in residential pools. One relatively unknown hazard, especially for children, is drain entrapment. Twenty-nine percent of people who own a pool are not at all familiar with entrapment, while thirty-seven percent are somewhat familiar. Entrapment can occur in a private or home pool, public pool, or spa/hot tub.

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April 9, 2008

Pennsylvania Swimming Pool and Hot Tub Accidents: Is Your Swimming Pool Safe?

Swimming pools, diving boards and hot tubs often pose a significant risk of serious injury and even wrongful death if proper safety measures are not followed. Each year in Pennsylvania, swimming pool accidents claim the lives of many innocent children as well as thousands of adults. Homeowners, hotel owners and apartment owners who have pools owe a small responsibility to provide a safe environment for both children and adults but to many times this does not happen.

Often times a swimming pool draws children like a magnet. Swimming pool accidents are the second leading cause of death for children under the age of 14. Each year in the United States, 1,000 children die and 5,000 others are hospitalized with catastrophic injuries due to swimming-related accidents. Unbelievably, drowning is the leading cause of death among children ages 2-4. When a child submerges for 2 minutes or more in the water, the child loses consciousness. Irreversible brain damage sets in after 4-6 minutes of water submersion.

Continue reading "Pennsylvania Swimming Pool and Hot Tub Accidents: Is Your Swimming Pool Safe?" »