Protect Your Pool Over the Cold Winter Season
ALMOST eight years after the State Government announced pool fences would be mandatory, confusion still reigns over safety regulations just six weeks before the start of summer.
Homeowners, fence contractors, pool suppliers and even an SA Government media adviser are unsure exactly what safety measures are required for the tens of thousands of backyard pools in South Australia to prevent drowning deaths and injuries.
It’s a common misconception that SA regulations require backyard pools to be surrounded by a purpose-built fence.
In fact there is no such law – property boundary fences and gates or doors with “child-resistant ” latches and self-closing mechanisms are considered sufficient – even though studies have shown children are 11 times more likely to drown in a pool with such barriers compared to those with a pool fence.
Last month Queensland joined WA in making fences mandatory and safety experts Kidsafe SA, the Royal Life Saving Society, Volunteer Marine Rescue SA and the Swimming Pool and Spa Association of SA are all calling on the SA Government to do the same.
In December 2002, the Government trumpeted compulsory fencing for pools, after an “alarming” number of backyard drownings, saying the law would be in operation by summer 2003.
Since then 15 children aged under six have drowned in backyard swimming pools in SA, according to the Royal Life Saving Society.
Society CEO Rob Bradley said the risk wasn’t just death but brain damage for drowning survivors and the Government was “dragging the chain” over new fencing requirements and this failure to act was “disappointing”. “Pool fencing should be mandatory – lives are at risk and the Government needs to move as quickly as possible,” he said.
The SA Water Safety Committee, which is examining pool safety regulations, has already described the use of child-resistant doors as a safety barrier as risky and an area “worthy of review”. Committee member and Volunteer Marine Rescue manager Darryl Wright said “one consideration is making pool fences mandatory”.
A lack of regulation enforcement is another area identified as a safety risk by the committee, which will recommend regulation changes to the Government as early as this week. Kidsafe SA said it had been lobbying the Government for 15 years to introduce compulsory fencing.
“Some 50 per cent of pre-school children who drown do so in backyard swimming pools,” Kidsafe CEO Helen Noblet said. Mrs Noblet said an inspection regime was needed. Councils are responsible for regulation enforcement and the maximum fine for a breach is $15,000 or four years imprisonment. No one has ever been prosecuted.
Jim Daniels of SA Pool and Spa Fencing Consultants said: “I’ve done around 380 inspections in the past two years and only eight have been to the correct standard.”
BY DAVID NANKERVIS
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