Drowning accidents are among the leading causes of death and visits to emergency rooms in the country. They occur for a myriad of reasons, including swimming while intoxicated, lack of adequate swimming skills, and swimming in an unsafe pool. When a drowning accident occurs, individuals and families spend a lot of money on treatment and rehabilitation. Those who lose their loved ones in these accidents must cover their hospital bills and funeral and burial costs. It becomes a difficult period for the affected families.

However, you can seek compensation from a liable party if your loved one sustains injuries or loses their life in a swimming accident that occurred due to negligence or wrongful acts. A skilled personal injury attorney can walk you through the complex legal process, explain your rights and options, and help you create a winning compensation claim.

Here are the top leading causes of drowning accidents and how they happen:

Inadequate Swimming Skills

Drowning is possible if you lack appropriate swimming skills. Maneuvering your way through a mass of water is usually more complex than it seems. Although expert swimmers make it seem easy and flawless, you must acquire some skills to swim safely, whether in a swimming pool or a situation requiring those skills.

Sadly, victims of drowning are primarily people with zero or inadequate swimming skills. When you find yourself in water, and you cannot keep your head above the water, you will likely drown. People with weak swimming skills cannot find safety and could experience difficulties when treading the water to a place of safety. Someone needs to rescue them quickly to prevent a drowning accident.

While you could avoid coming close to waters that could harm you for lack of appropriate swimming skills, you could find yourself in a citation that requires you to use those skills. For example, you could drown while trying to save someone or a pet from drowning. You could also drown if you are in an accident and your vehicle plunges into a body of water. Some people suffer grave accidents trying to train themselves how to swim. All these are incidents that could result in devastating injuries or even death.

Drug or Alcohol Intoxication

Intoxication is a common cause of drowning accidents because drugs and alcohol impair your physical and mental abilities, making it difficult for you to take quick action when in a dangerous situation. When you are impaired by alcohol or drugs, your coordination, judgment, balance, physical prowess, and rationality are also impaired. You are also more likely to react more than a sober person would, and you can quickly overestimate your abilities, resulting in wrong decision-making.

Alcohol encourages a person, causing them to take risks they would not take when sober. For example, if you cannot swim, intoxication can make you believe otherwise, causing you to take a risky jump into the water. Since your physical abilities are also impaired, you will not be able to swim your way to safety, resulting in severe injuries or even death.

Most drowning accidents reported in recreational aquatic activities, like boating, involve intoxicated individuals. These people participate in risky adventures without understanding the gravity of the risk they are taking because of their impaired judgment. Although some of these activities are fun, and you can create lasting memories, consumption of alcohol increases the risk of accidents.

Use of Narcotics or Prescription Drugs

Drug use and abuse are also among the leading causes of most accidents, including drowning accidents. Just like alcohol, drugs impair your ability to make rational decisions and judgments. You will likely make a wrong decision to jump into a pool or a mistake that could cause your vehicle to plunge into a body of water when you are high on drugs. Many people also harm themselves when high on drugs. The ‘high’ you experience after using narcotics makes your mind and body numb. It also makes you believe you can do anything, including swimming, without knowing how to.

Some prescription drugs have almost similar effects as narcotics. They impair your motor skills and judgment. Examples of these medications include those that treat anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and depression.

Unsupervised Children

Drowning accidents are more rampant in children than adults. This is because of many reasons, including children’s inability to fully develop specific skills like swimming. A child’s brain can also develop fully, making it difficult to make rational decisions. Children need adequate supervision to remain safe. Unsupervised children can suffer significant harm, especially if you leave them near dangerous water bodies. A water body does not need to be large, like a swimming pool or river, to cause a child to drown. Children can drown in ponds, brooks, streams, buckets, or hot tubs. Small children can also drown in any container with some water.

Accidental deaths in children also happen pretty quickly. It takes a few seconds for a child to die from lack of adequate oxygen. Those who survive suffer severe brain injuries that take a long time and cost a lot of money to treat or manage. Additionally, children rarely call for help when drowning. This makes it even more difficult to rescue them before so much damage happens.

If you have a pool in your home, ensure your children are always supervised, especially around the pool. You can make the pool inaccessible to your child unless an adult accompanies them. You could also watch your child closely at home or when playing outside.

Drowning rates for minors below four years are very high. In most cases, you realize the cause is usually inadequate supervision for the minor and a child’s lack of swimming skills. Small children do not have the core strength to remain afloat in a water body.

Unsupervised Swimming

Supervision is necessary when swimming, especially for children or adults with weak swimming skills. People who have yet to develop their swimming skills must not enter a pool without someone else present. The other person will come to their rescue if something happens and they need assistance or help coming out of the pool. Children need constant supervision, even those who have mastered the swimming skill. Remember that children do not have adequate core strength to remain afloat in water bodies like swimming pools. An adult must watch the child closely to ensure they are safe.

Other people who need adequate supervision in a swimming pool are swimmers with some medical conditions, like heart-related illnesses, those on medication that causes drowsiness or impairs their judgment, and people who have consumed drugs or alcohol. If you have a history of cramping, you must be careful whenever you swim. Ensure someone is with you if the problem reoccurs and you need assistance.

Drowning accidents do not only happen in isolated spaces; they can occur in a public space with a lot of traffic. When people are busy or having fun, they can miss a distressed swimmer in a swimming pool. Thus, if you have inadequate swimming skills or your child is in a pool, do not rely on the public for your safety. Ensure there is a supervisor for everyone’s safety.

Operators of public swimming facilities, including hotels, must have personnel on standby to ensure their guests are safe around and inside the pools. If not, there is the risk of facing lawsuits in case a reveler or their child suffers a drowning incident. If you suffer a drowning accident in a hotel or entertainment establishment, you could have a viable case against the business owners for lack of adequate supervision on their part. You only need to demonstrate that the hotel owed you a duty of care, which they breached and caused the accident in which you suffered injuries.

Incompetent Swimming Supervisors

Swimming supervisors need adequate training on what to look out for when a person is drowning and how to help that person out of the water quickly. They also need training on first-aid techniques they can administer to keep the person safe and alive until the person receives medical care. When these skills are missing, the supervisor cannot be of help, and the people depending on them could suffer severe injuries or even death due to drowning.

Thus, hotels and entertainment establishments with a pool must invest in training their swimming supervisors to keep their customers safe in and around the pools. Parents must also acquire these skills to ensure their children are safe when enjoying beautiful moments in a pool. Almost everyone needs these skills because you never know when someone in distress will need your quick judgment and response to save them from a drowning situation.

Here are some indications of drowning that a competent swimming supervisor must identify for a quick response and rescue:

  • A person struggles in water because they cannot swim or stay afloat.

  • They have tilted their heads to the back while their mouths are open.

  • Their eyes are closed, empty, or glassy.

  • A person is gasping for air or is struggling to breathe.

  • The person has been underwater for too long and is not emerging.

Signs of drowning vary from one person to another. Thus, some of these indications could contradict, making it challenging to know precisely when a swimmer needs help. Trained swimming supervisors understand different signs and reactions and are always alert. This makes it safer to swim where swimguards are well-trained and supervised. A trained lifeguard can quickly tell when a person is drowning or close to drowning. They also do not leave swimmers unattended until another trained lifeguard comes to relieve them of that duty.

Trained lifeguards also have the physical training to swim, even when supporting a conscious or unconscious swimmer. They have additional skills to resuscitate drowning victims and administer the right first aid before the person receives medical help.

Unsafe Swimming Pools

When building a swimming pool for your home or business, you must follow local and state guidelines to ensure it is safe for the people and those around it. Expert pool builders advise securing your pool to ensure that people only have access to it when they need to use the pool area. An unsafe poo will not have adequate barriers around it, making it accessible to anyone, including highly intoxicated individuals and children. In addition to creating barriers, like a fence, around the pool, home, and business owners must include a gate and a latch to keep unauthorized persons away from the pool area.

Unsecured pools are among the leading causes of drowning accidents. When an accident like that happens, you can quickly prove liability to obtain compensation for your injuries or wrongful death.

Children are curious and can easily wander away from their parents or supervisors. If your pool is unsecured, a child can drown while trying to swim on their own or after falling in the pool by accident. A Pool Safety Code for pool builders, homeowners, and business owners contains safety guidelines and regulations you must adhere to when building a pool. You can face prosecution if you violate any of the statutes therein.

Failure to Use Life Jackets

Life jackets are safety gear that keep swimmers or anyone in a body of water afloat. They are designed to automatically turn your body into an upside-down position, keeping your nose and mouth out of water. This way, you can breathe easily, call for help, and not drown. A life jacket can keep you safe in the water, even if you are unconscious until someone finds you. They are recommended for all people, including excellent swimmers, people with zero or inadequate swimming skills, children, the elderly, and boaters.

Exceptional swimming skills do not permanently eliminate the risk of drowning. Something can happen while you are inside the water, including becoming sick or having a leg cramp. A life jacket ensures your safety until you can swim to safety or someone can rescue you.

If you are a boater or going on a boat excursion, you must always have your life jacket on. If something happens and the boat capsizes, even an excellent swimmer risks drowning, especially if they are far from the land.

A life jacket also makes it easy for rescuers to find and rescue you if you are drowning or stuck in the middle of a body of water.

If you draw while in a life jacket, you could have a viable reason to futile for compensation from the life jacket manufacturers. If the jacket was made from substandard material, or the company neglected to make it of good quality, they must compensate you for the resulting damages.

Loss of Consciousness

You can lose consciousness while in a body of water, resulting in a drowning accident. This could happen in different ways, including the following:

  • When you suffer a heavy blow to your head while in the water

  • You suffer a seizure.

  • You experience any other medical issues while in the water.

Accidents occur when you least expect them. You could hit the head on a hard object inside the water, causing you to lose consciousness. If you are all alone, or the people around you are busy or intoxicated, you can drown. Once you lose consciousness, your body sinks in the water, making it even more difficult for people around you to notice. This could happen even in a small water body. The accident can be fatal as long as your nose and mouth are covered in the water.

This explains why drowning in bathtubs is common, even for people with excellent swimming skills. Some people fall into bathtubs and injure their heads, causing them to lose consciousness. Others enter their bathtubs when they are incredibly exhausted. Drowning becomes inevitable once you fall asleep in a tub full of water. Other drowning accidents occur because a person has a preexisting medical condition that causes them to lose consciousness while inside a body of water.

Flooding

So many cases of drowning accidents are reported amid flooding. Flash floods are extremely dangerous because they leave a trail of destruction behind. Some people sustain life-changing injuries, while others lose their lives. Flash floods also cause massive property destruction. When a flash flood releases an enormous body of water, even the best swimmers in the land are affected. Those that suffer the most are those that are caught unawares.

Although flash floods are rare, they cause destruction and death when they happen. You can take precautions, especially when reports of a heavy downpour start streaming.

Find a Skilled Personal Injury Attorney Near Me

A drowning accident can result in devastating injuries and death. If you or someone you love is affected, you can seek compensation if another party’s negligence caused the accident. A skilled personal injury attorney can help you understand liability, identify the liable party, and file a winning claim in a civil court.

We handle drowning accident cases at San Diego Personal Injury Law Firm. We have the skills and experience you need to obtain a favorable outcome for your case. Our attorneys will defend your rights, gather compelling evidence, and fight with you for the compensation you deserve. Call us at 619-478-4059 for quality legal advice and assistance in San Diego.