How Safe Is Your Home Pool?

This summer, the Royal Life Saving Society Australia and PoolWerx are asking everyone with a backyard pool to follow a simple checklist to make sure their fence is safe before tragedy can occur.

Most children will have access to a backyard pool over summer, either at home or through neighbours, friends or extended relatives. But as any parent or grandparent will tell you, it is nigh on impossible to watch small children at every moment, so home pool fences are a vital back-up to make sure children don’t enter water unsupervised.

But what happens if that fence has a gap, either from a missing panel or where land has subsided underneath? Or the lock doesn’t catch properly? Or the kids have propped it open to make it easy to run from the house into the pool?

On average 35 Australian children under the age of five drown each year. Half of those children will drown in a backyard pool, and that is where you can take action to save a life.

“An increasing number of children are drowning by getting through, under or over existing pool gates and fencing that their parents believed was secure,” said Royal Life Saving CEO, Rob Bradley. “We are asking every pool owner to get out into their backyard this weekend and make sure it is safe and secure.”

“Pool Fencing legislation has now been in place for 10 to 15 years and many fences and gates have badly deteriorated,” said Bradley. “Recent local government surveys have shown that up to 85 per cent of home pools do not comply with the safety standards. That’s a frightening statistic.”

“By using our practical, easy to read checklist home pool owners will be able to check, fix and maintain their home pool environment,” said Bradley.”Make this coming weekend your Home Pool Safety Weekend!”

If you’re concerned in any way you can contact your local State Royal Life Saving office on 1300 737 763 for further advice and assistance.

To download your free copy of the checklist, go to www.homepoolsafety.com.au.