Drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury death among children ages 1-14. In California, Arizona, and Florida, drowning is the leading cause of injury death among children under the age of 5 years. Children aged 1-3 years are at greatest risk of drowning death. Up to 90% of drownings in this age-group occur in residential swimming pools and retention ponds near the home.(CDC)
Most young children who drowned were last seen in the home, had been out of sight less than five minutes, and were in the care of one or both parents at the time (CDC). The majority of these incidents can not be attributed to parental negligence. Responsible parents also lose their children to drowning accidents.
For every child 14 years and younger who died from drowning in 2004, five received emergency department care for nonfatal submersion injuries. More than half of these children were hospitalized or transferred to another facility for treatment. Nonfatal drownings can cause brain damage that result in long-term disabilities ranging from memory problems and learning disabilities to the permanent loss of basic functioning (i.e., permanent vegetative state).
These statistics are not intended to frighten parents. They are meant to make parents aware of how prevalent water submersion accidents are among children, so that they can take action. Specifically, water safety is of utmost importance to families with residential pools and or/ retention ponds and young children. The best safety solution is a multi-layered one that provides many levels of protection for children.
How many children must drown before it's mandatory? Please sign, and tell our state that if there must be a retention pond in the neighborhood, then we need a gate to keep our kids out!
How many signatures would it take to build one fence? A hundred? Thousand? More?
The reason I ask is because we're not just aiming for Johnson County, we're not just aiming for Central Indiana... We're aiming for the entire state of Indiana.
With 1,000 signatures sent to each housing addition, we're hoping to make a difference.
Please consider each signature a plea for the life of a child to be spared, and with each 1,000 signatures, a hope that gates will be mandatory around each retention pond.
Thanks you for taking the time to read this, and hopefully, for taking action!