Swimming Pool Liability

Summer is usually a time when thoughts turn to cooling off and leisurely days around a swimming pool (especially during heat waves.)  That makes perfect sense, but in my view as a Boston injury attorney who handles swimming pool injuries and drowning accidents, not enough people are aware of the dangers of backyard swimming pools - whether in-ground or above-ground.  In my career, some of the worst injuries I have seen have involved swimming pool injuries.  Why?  Because while minor injuries (such as a sprain or a broken limb,) aren't life-altering, many of these types of injuries are often of the catastrophic variety:  Broken necks, broken backs, paralysis, massive brain injuries, and even death. While having a swimming pool at your house can certainly add to a home's market value, legally, it can pose serious, and even deadly, hazards. A Boston Globe editorial on the subject of swimming pool safety that was published recently, underscores this point.

 

Statistically, the safety and legal risks that are associated with swimming pools are very high. Those risks go beyond just injuries that the owners of the pool can sustain themselves.  Guests - invited and even sometimes uninvited - represent primary liability risks. When guests are injured at a backyard swimming pool, the liability exposure for the homeowner is very high. Liability for swimming pool injuries can sometimes attach to situations that some people might not expect. This occurred in a recent case involving a teenager who was ostensibly told by the owners of a backyard swimming pool to supervise younger children at the pool. Seem like a fairly responsible move by the homeowners? 

 

It wasn't.  

 

It resulted in the death of a 3 year-old boy who was visiting, who drowned in the family's swimming pool while being "supervised" by the teenager that had been assigned that task by her parents. After the boy fell into the family pool, the teenager "froze" for a significant period of time and didn't immediately jump into the pool to rescue the youngster.    As a result, the boy drowned when it appeared that he could have been saved with a quick response.  The deceased boy's parents sued the parents of the teenage supervisor (whose parents owned the pool,) alleging that the teenager's parents were negligent in presuming that their daughter possessed the ability and maturity to react responsibly to an emergency involving the use of the pool.

 

Whether an issue of supervision is present or not, the injuries and drowning deaths that occur are often sustained by children or young adults.  This is so for a variety of reasons: 

• The water is blue and attractive; (in legal parlance, a swimming pool is known as an "attractive nuisance");  

• It is difficult to know exactly how deep a given area of the pool is because unlike in commercial settings (such as hotels) and with municipal pool settings, there is almost never any signage at the edge of the pool indicating pool depths at particular points along the pool. This increases the odds that neck and back injuries will result when someone jumps into a too-shallow area of a pool.  Paralysis injuries are not uncommon.

• The pool is almost always surrounded by concrete or flagstone-type walking surfaces, which are slippery when wet and can cause severe injuries in the form of broken bones and concussions that can result in brain damage.

• Often, there is a diving board present, which can result in traumatic injuries when falling the 'wrong way.'

• The area around the pool should be secured from curious children or intruders (usually by a view-obstructing high fence.)
• Supervision appropriate to the ages of the persons using the pool should be present (as the above case makes clear.)
• The water should be regularly maintained for cleanliness and proper chemical balances.
• If a diving board is present, measures need to be taken to keep users from endangering one another.
• Signs pointing out particular hazards or warnings should also be plainly displayed.

• Fractures resulting from improper diving or falling on hard, wet surfaces around the pool.
• Head and brain injuries or spinal cord damage resulting from collisions in the pool or unsafe diving conditions.
• Infection or illness caused by unsafe levels of bacteria in the water.
• Toxic reaction to excessive use of chemicals
• Brain damage resulting from lack of oxygen in near-drowning accidents, particularly those involving children.
• Death by drowning