by Yakflyer » Fri Nov 17, 2006 10:25 pm
As a director of the pool safety company referred to in Stuart’s posting, I hope the site administrators will allow me the opportunity to clear one or two misconceptions and make a few observations.
Firstly, while Lisa’s fear that her child may want to walk on a safety net is understandable, in practice this does not happen. Over the past thirty years tens of thousands of nets have been sold world-wide and they are a recognized and approved safety barrier. To-date, I understand there has not been one single recorded fatality while a safety net is in place. The second thing to understand is that a correctly installed safety net is incredibly taut and will easily withstand the weight of a toddler, if not an adult. On the home page of our website (Stuart kindly provided the address above) we actually illustrate a three year old boy sitting on a net. We had to place him there, he wouldn’t go voluntarily...suffice it to say he did not even get his bum wet in the process!
Pool Safety is an imperative - not an option - if you have kids (or kids come to visit) and own a swimming pool. This year alone there were reportedly 196 recordable swimming pool ‘incidents’ in Cyprus and two tragedies in which youngsters, sadly, died.
There are advantages and disadvantages to each different type of safety barrier. Most customers prefer safety fences, but there are times when a safety net may be more appropriate. And while a home-made wooden fence may be cheaper to instal than a professionally installed safety fence which conforms with safety regulations worldwide, all the amateur fences we have seen - without exception - incorporate major safety failings, which were obviously not apparent to the person who built them. For example, safety fences MUST:
1) be a minimum of 1.2m (4') tall. Any lower and young children will be able to tumble over them as they get older. Some American states insist on a 5' minimum height, but 4' (1m) meets the French AFNOR regulations, which are likely to be the blueprint for European regulations. The fence should also come right down to the ground - so babies can’t crawl under the fence - and be positioned 1m away from the pool edge all the way round.
2) not have a toe or foothold, so kids cannot climb over them. Every wooden ‘safety’ fence we’ve seen fails on this point. Kids will be kids...and climbing up things they shouldn’t climb comes only too naturally.
3) be sturdy enough to withstand several years exposure to the elements...and the boisterous antics of young kids.
4) incorporate a self-closing (ie. spring-loaded), self-locking and key-lockable safety gate. The safety gate should also be 1.2m high. The gate must open outwards - away from the pool. The weakest point in a safety fence is invariably the gate, so it is important to get this right. Young children continue to die needlessly because a pool safety gate was either accidentally left open...or worse still, wedged open.
A quality pool safety barrier shipped from west coast USA to Cyprus, which then takes two to four man-days to install, will never come ‘cheap’. Most customers typically pay £900 to £1,500 (it can be less or more depending on size, complexity and type) for a pool safety barrier. Is this really too much to safeguard your childrens, or your friends' childrens' lives? Many people spend more than this on a holiday, upgrading their new car, installing a satellite dish or buying the latest flat-screen TV. A customer of ours in Erimi, who lost her three year old niece in a pool drowning tragedy once summed it up when she said to me: “No-one should ever say that they cannot afford pool safety, or think they can get away without it”.
Lloyd
and thinks she can walk on water, I am really concerned that she will sucumb to her grandparents pool. I think the netting looks scary - my tod will think its ok to walk on, but does anyone have any experience of using these systems? We're frantically doing swimming lessons, of course, but in the meantime?
