A swimming pool accident lawsuit is usually based on premises liability, meaning the owner of the pool is liable for injuries or death related to the pool. Often this involves a municipality, school, country club, or fitness center.

However, about about 80% of the drowning fatalities occurring in residential settings, such as the victim’s home, a family or friend’s house or at a neighbor’s residence. When this happens, compensation for injuries and death is sought from the owner's home insurance. If you would like our law firm to represent you in your fight to obtain full and adequate compensation from an insurance company, please contact Pritzker Olsen Attorneys.

Two-thirds of pool and spa-related deaths and injuries involve children ages 1-2, and most of those deaths involve drowning or near-drowning. However, from 1999 through 2008, there were 83 reports of pool and spa entrapments, including 11 deaths and 69 injuries. Since 1999, 14% of the reported suction/entrapment incidents at pools or spas were fatal.

Attorney Eric Hageman of our law firm was one of the attorneys who represented Abigail Taylor, a four-year-old who suffered fatal injuries from an evisceration incident in a wading pool, and her family. Abigail suffered for months before dying.

“Preventing child drownings and suction/entrapment incidents should be the top priority of pool owners," stated attorney Eric Hageman, "The Pool and Spa Safety Act went into effect on December 19, 2008 and requires all public pools and spas to have anti-entrapment drain covers, and in certain circumstances, an additional anti-entrapment system. Home owners should also take all measures necessary to ensure their pools are safe."

In addition to using anti-entrapment drain covers, swimming pool owners should use fences and/or other physical barriers, alarms and/or power safety covers over the pool to prevent young children from drowning.

To contact Pritzker Olsen Attorneys, please call 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or submit our free consultation form.

Labels: swimming pool death, swimming pool injuries, swimming pool safety

In the last nine months there have been nine reported serious incidents at Minnesota swimming pools or water parks, where people became ill, were injured or died. (Read more about Minnesota swimming pool injuries and the deaths.) As a result, the Minnesota Department of Health is urging those who use swimming pools, including parents of young children, to protect their own health and safety when swimming:

• If the water is cloudy, do not go in the pool; report it to the pool operator.
• If you have been ill with diarrhea in the last two weeks, do not go in the pool.
• Do not allow children who have been ill with diarrhea or vomiting in the last two weeks to swim.
• Avoid swallowing pool water.
• Follow all other posted pool rules, which include bathing/showering before entering the pool.
• Do not drink and swim; people who are intoxicated should not be in the pool area.
• Keep an eye on your child at all times.
• Take your kids on frequent bathroom breaks.
  

“Swimming is good physical activity, and we want people to continue, but we need everyone to observe pool rules so that everyone can swim safely,” said John Linc Stine, director of environmental health for MDH.

In June of 2007, Abigail Taylor suffered serious injuries at the Minneapolis Golf Club pool in St. Louis Park that eventually led to her death. The six-year old was injured when she sat on an open drain in the wading pool; the heavy suction at the drain caused her intestinal tract to be partially removed.

Last summer, following the accident, Minnesota Department of Health issued a safety warning to licensed pool owners/operators in the state urging them to make sure drain covers were fitted and secured properly and to check them daily. In light of the serious risk that is posed to children, our lawyers suggest that parents ask pool managers if the pool drain covers are fitted and secured properly and when the pool drain covers were last checked.

More information on pool safety can be found at: http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/pools/poolincidents.html.

For questions regarding injury, death or illness resulting from a swimming pool incident, please contact a lawyer at PritzkerOlsen.

Labels: Minnesota Department of Health, Minnesota lawyer, swimming pool safety

In the last nine months there have been nine reported serious incidents at Minnesota swimming pools or water parks, where people became ill, were injured or died.

• June 2007: Abigail Taylor suffered serious injuries at the Minneapolis Golf Club (MGC) pool in St. Louis Park that eventually led to her death. The six-year old was injured when she sat on an open drain in the wading pool; the heavy suction at the drain caused her intestinal tract to be partially removed.
• July 2007: 20 cases of cryptosporidiosis diagnosed in people who swam at a public pool.
• September 2007: 58 cases of cryptosporidiosis diagnosed in people who visited a hotel water park.
• November 2007: Six cases of otitis exertna (“swimmers ear”) diagnosed in guests at a hotel likely due to inadequate chlorine levels in the pool and lack of managerial oversight.
• November 2007: Five cases of dermatitis, a skin infection, diagnosed in guests at a hotel likely due to inadequate chlorine levels in the pool and lack of managerial oversight.
• November-December 2007: 31 cases of cryptosporidiosis diagnosed in people who swam at a public pool.
• December 2007: Three people suffered chemical burns at a hotel pool due to improperly balanced pool chemistry and lack of managerial oversight.
• February 2008: A 17 year-old drowned in a hotel pool after heavy drinking.
• March 2008: Thirty-eight high school students and staff reported illness after a swimming pool pump was turned on while a class was in the pool area.
  

“The clear lesson from all of these incidents is that when proper operating procedures and pool safety rules are not followed, there can be serious consequences,” said John Linc Stine, director of environmental health for Minnesota Department of Heath.

“Proper pool operation and safe enjoyment of swimming pools requires a balance of proper physical conditions of a pool, including safety equipment, correct water chemistry, and observance of pool rules by patrons so that all swimmers are safe,” said Colleen Paulus, manager of the Minnesota Department of Health section that includes public swimming pool inspections and oversight.

If you have been injured in a Minnesota swimming pool, contact a lawyer at PritzkerOlsen. We have a national reputation, and lawyers at our firm have been interviewed by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Lawyers USA and other publications. Attorneys Fred Pritzker, Elliot Olsen and Eric Hageman have been named "Super Lawyers" by Law & Politics magazine. To contact a lawyer at Pritzker | Olsen, please call 1-888-377-8900 or submit our free case consultation form.

Posted April 2008.

Labels: Minnesota lawyers, swimming pool injuries