“only a Few Seconds” Young Children Drown Without a Sound

The County of Orange Ordinance Number 99–10, which applies only to new construction, deals with barriers for swimming pools, spas and hot tubs and does not apply to private residential pools/spas completed prior to the Winter of 1996.

One of the exceptions to Ordinance Number 99–10 (above) allows a door exit alarm to satisfy the barrier requirement. Door exit alarms are easily disabled.

Within Orange County jurisdictions, drowning/immersion reports submitted to the County Health Care Agency from which to extract data to determine causes and outcomes are not uniform in format.

While drowning is the leading cause of accidental death among children ages 1-4 in Orange County, because incident numbers are small, it is difficult to achieve statistically significant results when analyzing causation and outcomes.

Members of the Drowning Prevention Network, including representatives of the Health Care Agency and the Orange County Fire Authority, have done an excellent job of informing the Orange County public. However, there is no regional drowning/immersion prevention organization or authority to take advantage of the Southern California television broadcast area that would maximize coverage of the public education/awareness message.

After verification of minimum standards compliance at the final inspection of a new single-family residential pool/spa by the Planning and Development Services Department there is no further ongoing inspection and enforcement of pool/spa safety features.

The Orange County Fire Authority has developed and implemented a computer- based reporting form for drowning/immersion incidents.

The County has recently utilized GIS (Geographic Information System) technology. This could be used to map the locations of all residential pools/spas in Orange County.

The Orange County District Attorney usually does not prosecute drowning/immersion incidents, which typically involve ordinary negligence rather than criminal negligence. Responses to Findings 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 are required from the Orange County Board of Supervisors. A Response to Finding 4 is required from the Children and Families Commission. Responses to Findings 6, 7 and 8 are required from the Orange County Fire Authority. A Response to Finding 9 is required from the District Attorney. Responses to Findings 1 and 2 are requested from the Planning and Development Services Department. Responses to Findings 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 are requested from the Orange County Health Care Agency.