Tonight at midnight a new federal law goes into effect regarding pool drain covers, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune. The new law will:
. . . require pools and spas used by the public to have new anti-entrapment drain covers. The covers are designed to protect swimmers, especially young children, from being trapped underwater by the suction created by the filtration system. . . .Congress enacted the law requiring the pool drain covers last year after 7-year-old Virginia Graeme Baker drowned when she became trapped in a spa drain in 2002. Her grandfather, former Secretary of State James Baker, pushed for its passage.
Drains have reportedly resulted in nine deaths in seven years, with 63 injuries. Currently, the Carlsbad Pool is no in compliance and, “Carlsbad officials have not yet decided whether to close the city’s single pool until the retrofit is done.”
All we can say is: close it until it is fixed and fix it immediately. Having been sucked onto a couple drains in our lives we can say that these drains are far, far more dangerous that the statistics suggest.
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
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