GTPD Offers Tips on Water Safety

Gloucester Township Police Department on Wednesday issued a press release with the following water-safety tips and guidelines:

The summer is a time of fun for many children as they head from classrooms to playgrounds and swimming pools. Unfortunately, summertime also marks an increase in the number of childhood drowning deaths and injuries. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) estimates each year nearly 300 children younger than 5 drown in swimming pools and spas and more than 3,000 that age go to hospital emergency rooms due to non-fatal submersion injuries. An unknown number of these hospitalizations result in permanent disability, including brain damage. These deaths and injuries are preventable. The Gloucester Township Police Department wants parents and guardians to be aware of the following safety tips. Information provided by and for more safety tips visit: www.poolsafely.gov and www.safekids.org  

Prevent Drowning:

• Actively supervise your children around water at all times, and have a phone nearby to call for help in an emergency.
• Make sure your pool has four-sided fencing and a self-closing, self-latching gate to prevent a child from wandering into the pool area unsupervised. In addition, hot tubs should be covered and locked when not in use.
• Install a door alarm, a window alarm or both to alert you if a child wanders into the pool area unsupervised.
• From the start, teach children to never go near or in water without an adult present.
• Enroll your child in swimming lessons after age 4—typically the earliest age when they are likely to practice and retain information. Teach children how to tread water, float and stay by the shore.
• Learn CPR and know how to respond in water emergencies.  

5 Truths About Children Who Drown:  

1. Weak or No Supervision
- Children drown quickly and silently-in a matter of seconds. Adults who were present when a child drowns were often distracted in some way, by talking on the phone, chatting with other adults around the pool.

2. No Barriers
- Curious children, especially those younger than 4 years old, can easily find and fall in to bodies of water like pools, tubs and buckets

3. Weak or No CPR Skills
- Drowning victims who are rescued from the water need CPR immediately-before the paramedics arrive. It can prevent brain damage and be the difference between life and death.

4. Weak or No Swimming Ability
- Children from non-swimming households are eight times more likely to be at-risk of drowning.

5. Lack of Life Jacket Use
- Nearly 5,000 boating accidents occur each year in open waters and more than 700 people drown. Of those who drown, nine out of 10 are not wearing a life jacket.   

Additional Safety Tips:  

LOCK - Put up a fence that is at least 4 feet high and surrounds all sides of the pool or spa. The fence should have a gate with a lock that closes and latches by itself.
- Use door, gate and pool alarms.
- Teach children not to play or swim near pool or spa drains.
- Use approved safety drain covers and back up devices.

LOOK - Always watch children when they are in or near water.
- When you are watching children, don’t be distracted by phone calls, text messages, reading or talking to others.
- Watch children even if they know how to swim.
- Children who can’t swim, or can’t swim well, should be within your reach.
- Keep a phone near you—use it only to call for help if there is an emergency.
- If a child is missing, check the water first.

LEARN - Both adults and children should learn how to swim.
- Learn when to use U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jackets.
- Learn how to use rescue equipment.
- Learn CPR.  

Gloucester Township Local Ordinance 75 regulates swimming pools: 75-10 (Safety Precautions) Swimming pool safety devices. Every person owning land on which there is situated a swimming pool, which contains twenty-four (24) inches or more of water in depth at any point, shall erect and maintain thereon an adequate enclosure­ sure either surrounding the property or pool area sufficient to make such body of water inaccessible to small children. Such enclosure, including gates therein, must be not less than four (4) feet above the underlying ground; all gates must be self-latching with latches placed four (4) feet above the underlying ground or otherwise made inaccessible from the outside to small children. A natural barrier, hedge, pool cover or other protective device approved by the governing body may be used so long as the degree of pro­tection afforded by the substituted devices or structures is not less than the protection afforded by the enclosure, gate and latch described herein. 

To obtain proper pool permits for any pool that contains 24 inches of water or more contact Community Development at 856-374-3500.