By Natalie Akoorie de Rnz
Warning: This story deals with drowning children and may be disturbing to some people.
Drowning eight children under six in a summer have taken an investigation from the coroner who says adults should supervise young children near the water.
The children, who were aged nine months and five years, died in rivers, paddling private and pools above ground, a public pool, a lake and on a beach during the summer of 2021-2022.
The coroner Michael Robb recommended that adults hold young children or were in close contact when they are in the water and directly supervise individual children without being distracted by on -line content, housework or talking to others.
Robb also recommended that signaling in public places was clear and frank about supervision and that adults should not assume that the rescue would not notice a child drowning, because it could happen as quickly as a child slipping under the surface.
He also recommended a new legislation to deal with ongoing risks with portable and temporary home pools.
Water safety in New Zealand said 54 children five or less drowned since 2015. Nineteen deaths have been in pools.
The coroner suppressed the names of the dead children and those of his whānau, but disclosed each of his discoveries together.
In the first case, a five -year -old boy was standing at the waterfront in Marine Parade Beach in Napier on December 10, 2021, when he was dragged to the sea and drowned.
On December 22, a five -year -old girl who went to a public pool in Christchurch with her brothers and grandparents, drowned after having difficulties in an area of the main pool that was in her head.
The coroner said the signs in the installation required a child five or less to be supervised by an adult within the reach, but was not sufficiently prominent in the vestibule.
In the third case, a four -year -old boy was playing with his teenage sister on a lake in Northland on January 4, 2022, when he found a balloon that walked away.
She and her brother had never swallowed in the lake before and were unaware of a pure fall.
The coroner said there were many people swimming around the boy that day, but no one noticed him disappear until he was seen floating unanswered.
The next day, a five -year -old boy drowned after disappearing from a family that gathered in a waterfall on the border with the Whirinaki River, southeast of Rotorua.
His mother had lunch in the vehicle and said she could see her son initially, but looked away for about five minutes.
Three days later, a two -year -old boy was with 20 adults, including his mother, and other children at Riacho Wirahi in Northland, when he disappeared while his mother helped mark food away from the stream.
He was eventually found submerged in the water hole where the children were playing.
On January 12, a 19 -month -old boy who enjoyed swimming with floats in the family inflatable pool had finished swimming when he disappeared from the house and was found shortly thereafter, with no response in the pool.
Robb said the pool should be surrounded, but the family had a rule of removing the ladder whenever an adult was not swimming in the pool. He ruled death a tragic accident.
On January 14, a nine -month girl dragged on a paddle pool as her mother slept and drowned.
Robb said the baby’s death was avoidable and that the police and oranga Tamariki should have taken action to help his mother in trouble after his six -year -old sister was found on the previous three nights wandering the streets on his own streets, about 1 km from his porirua home.
In the final case, a five -year -old boy separated from his family while walking on the Hutt River on February 9 and was later found unanswered by search and rescue at 40m downstream from where he disappeared.
The coroner noted that when the children were in or near the water, there was often general observation and supervision by adults.
“What can happen is a false sense of security that children are being supervised due to the presence of numerous older adults and/or adolescents in the area that play a general role of supervision over the group of children.
“There may be an expectation that if something goes wrong with the child in the water, it will be obvious, and will be observed by an adult or someone old enough to provide fitness.”
However, he said that unlike popular misconceptions, a child can slip below the surface without calling or sneezing high and can quickly drown unnoticed.
“This is why the vigilant and constant observation of each child is necessary when it is near the water.”
He said the supervision of children while distracted was not effective.
This included general and not constant observation, watching a child at a distance or while Lia, sends text messages or is online and supervises while performing other tasks, such as cooking or talking to others.
“Supervision around water is only effective when it is accompanied by direct physical contact with the child, holding the child or holding a hand or being so close that at the moment a child comes into contact with the water that the child can be physically reached,” he said.
The coroner has recommended that signaling in public swimming pools should detail the caregiver’s responsibility for the supervision of children, be displayed with prominence and that the messages are fraudulent, clear and consistent nationally.
He observed New Zealand water safety statistics that there were two drowning of young children on the beaches in the last decade compared to 17 in domestic pools and 26 in rivers, lakes and lagoons.
He recommended that temporary pools of 1.2 million or more would only be sold with an appropriate closed safety entry and that New Zealand water safety and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBI) create legislation to save children’s lives in connection with temporary domestic pools.
The coroner also recommended that local councils adopt a proactive approach, including work with New Zealand’s water safety to promote the supply of water safety classes in their communities.
Gavin Walker, general manager of New Zealand New Zealand, has endorsed the recommendations saying they should be applied and expanded.
He ordered small portable pools with less than 1.2 million height to be removed from the sale.
Walker said water safety became in the 1980s, when mandatory fencing legislation was introduced and children’s drowning rates fell.
However, he said water safety was now at risk because of temporary pools with cut price that were flooding the market.
“The measurements should be taken on the blurred lines around safety for permanent and temporary pools.”
