Lifeguards are given tremendous responsibility at swimming pools throughout the country.  In addition to maintaining and cleaning the pool, a lifeguard on duty must be ever vigilant to watch swimmers and divers so as to prevent drowning and other aquatic injuries.  Public safety education and onsite supervision by lifeguards have helped keep drowning rates low and have significantly reduced the number of drownings in the United States.  Still, the cost of a single catastrophic injury or death while using an aquatic facility can be substantial.  My own son has worked as a lifeguard and a facilities manager, and the work is not as glamorous as “Baywatch” would have us believe. 

The United States Lifesaving Association (“USLA”), which has information on safety tips, statistics, spinal injuries, heroic acts, and events listed on its web site recorded approximately 77,000 rescues for areas served by lifeguards in 1997.

Lifeguarding is not as easy as it looks.  It requires levels of fitness, alertness and training that not everyone can perform.  There are long hours of tedium, punctuated by bursts of action, warning and rescue. Good training and supervision are vital to the success of any pool’s lifeguard and water safety program.

Showing the increasing use of electronic devices into every facet of our lives, I have seen lifeguards in several states text messaging while on duty!  While I have seen swimming pool staff working while listening to music from a radio or the pool sound system (as opposed to “ear buds” or headphones), I had never seen an aquatic safety workers texting while in the chair.  Because drowning can happen so quickly, and the cell phones and Blackberries require so much of the user’s attention, this is a recipe for disaster.  I believe that swimming pool and diving life guards should not even have cell phones, blackberry or similar devices on them when they are patrolling and scanning the pool. It flies in the face of safety and the vigilance expected of water safety and rescue personnel.

Having raised four children to be “water safe,” and rescued people in dangerous white water raft accidents, I am well aware of the many kinds of aquatic injury.  Drowning is one of the most common causes of death for children under fourteen years of age and every year, more than 6,500 people drown in the United States. A great many of these deaths could have been prevented – either through better safety precautions or increased lifeguard supervision. Even near-drowning incidents can cause serious long-term mental and physical handicap and injury.  Unfortunately, pool related injuries and drownings often result from the following factors:

• Untrained and/or inattentive life guards
• Broken or inadequate pool ladders that would enable swimmers to easily exit the pool
• Failure to maintain water clarity such that someone stuck or drowning at the bottom cannot be seen in time for rescue
• Overcrowded pools with too many people in the pool at one time
• Inadequately trained pool staff and maintenance personnel responsible for pool upkeep
• Defective pool light or inadequate lighting areas around pool
• Failure to have a drain cover that meets safety standards (ANSI/ASME A112.19.8-2007)
• Broken or non-existent emergency phone near pool
• Failure to follow state law and keep pool logs
• Broken or defective pool equipment such as filters, drains and pool pumps that affect water clarity
• Failure to have clearly identified depth markers so pool users can see how deep the water is before getting in the pool
• Lack of flotation safety lines that separate deep and shallow areas of the pool
• Failure to maintain self-latching and closing gates that keep small children from entering the pool area without adult supervision
• Lack of safety and rescue equipment, such as ring buoys or “life savers” with throw rope, shepherd’s hook, flotation belts, etc.
• Vacuum drains that lack proper covers that can cause serious or fatal injuries, especially to small children

In light of these facts, there should be a “zero tolerance rule” for texting lifeguards.  I do not want to hear about a drowning at a local pool while a water safety worker was “texting,” “tweeting” or checking his e-mails.

Doug Landau is an attorney with Abrams Landau Ltd., in Herndon, Virginia.