Young children are naturally drawn to water. They're curious about the sound of flowing water and how light shimmers on its surface. They want to look at it more closely, touch it with their hands, and feel it splashing on their bodies. But water can be deadly and drowning can happen quickly and without any warning of splashing or screaming.

Is your child at risk?

• In-ground swimming pools without complete four-sided isolation fencing are 60 percent more likely to be involved in drownings than those with four-sided isolation fencing.
• Drownings and near-drownings tend to occur on the weekend (40 percent) and between the months of May and August (62 percent).
• 69% of incidents occurred while one or both parents were responsible for supervision.
• 65% were in the pool owned by the childs family, 22% at a relatives, and 11% at a neighbors home.
• 77% of the had been seen 5 minutes or less before being missed.
• 46% were last seen in the house

*( USA SAFE KIDS, Consumer Safety Product Commission)

Local Numbers

• In North Carolina, unintentional injury is the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 1 and 44
• Of those injuries, from 2000-2003 Drowning was one of the top three causes of death for people 1-24 and in the top four for ages 25-44.
• During those years, there were 403 drowning related deaths and 19,847 drowning related injuries.
• In Mecklenburg county, from 2003-2005, 41% of the pool drownings and near drownings occurred in residential pools.

Layers of protection are the key to prevention

One of those "layers" starts with complying with the current residential pool requirement of a protective enclosure.

Mecklenburg County Health Ordinance, Rules governing residential pools.

Residential swimming pools shall be protected by a fence, wall, building, or other enclosure, or any combination thereof, which completely encloses the swimming pool area.