By Gabrielle Sanders
Roosevelt High School
With the summer’s warm and really hot temperatures, it is the perfect time to go swimming. But drowning prevention advocates and Stony Brook Children’s Hospital officials urge everyone to keep an eye on children from ages 1 to 4 around bodies of water: Drowning, they say, is the No. 1 killer of kids that age in New York State and nationally.
The statistics in New York State are clear, according to Bobby Hazen, executive director of Stop Drowning Now. About 4,000 people die from drowning in the state every year. Hazen, who is also a founding member of the NY Safety Coalition, said that in addition to the alarming statistic for toddlers, water accidents are the second biggest killer of children from ages 5 to 14, behind traffic accidents.
Drownings of toddlers and young children aren’t just in pools or at beaches. This past September, two sisters, ages 2 and 4, drowned in a pond on their Holtsville apartment complex property after they had wandered from their apartment. Rescuers speculated that one child may have fallen in, and the other tried to help. In a story from CBS News, a neighbor said, “How do these things happen? That’s why they’re called tragic accidents. They have a gate. They have all the safety precautions. I’ve never seen the children left unattended.”
At Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, doctors are working to prevent child drowning. In July, the hospital organized a roundtable event with the ZAC Foundation and Stop Drowning Now, both water safety nonprofit organizations dedicated to preventing drownings, to discuss preventative measures not only in New York but also the nation as a whole.
A plan was created to educate parents, including a test of general knowledge of drowning prevention beforehand, followed by a video on what to expect, with the main goal being to inform parents so there is a higher success rate with drowning prevention.
Water safety experts recommend getting children comfortable with being near water at an early age and learning to swim. There are programs offered by local YMCAs, town pools, and commercial ventures, like Saf-T-Swim’s ABCs & Ds of Drowning Prevention, a widely recognized system of guidelines such as adults supervising their children when they are in or are around water. Swim classes for children are recommended as are life jackets for non-swimmers.
“When kids learn how to swim young, they are able to carry it when they are adults,” said Bruce Meirowitz, vice president of the Jones Beach Lifeguard Corps and president of the New York State Lifeguard Corps Chapter of United University Professionals. “You have to start somewhere.”
