Morristown, Tennessee Swimming Pool Accident Lawyers
Owning or visiting a swimming pool can provide hours of family enjoyment, but it is important to remember that pools can also be extremely dangerous. Unfortunately, many people, especially young children, are injured in pool-related accidents every year. At Terry, Terry, and Stapleton, we understand the nature of these personal injuries. We represent people injured in both residential and public pool settings including spas, hot tubs, water parks, and wading pools throughout Tennessee.
All too often, swimming pool accidents are caused by dangerous conditions such as lack of fencing, failure to provide lifeguards, or failure to monitor individuals in the pool.
Swimming pool accidents include diving board mishaps, diving into shallow water, electrocution, water contamination, and overly chemically treated water. The two most common accidents are drownings and entrapment injuries.
Drowning
Places that invite children to play in or near a pool need to have safeguards to protect them from the risk of drowning. Swimming pools are a hazard for toddlers and small children when left uncovered or unsecured. In fact, drowning is one of the most common causes of death for children under the age of 14. More than 6500 Americans die annually from drowning. Even near-drowning can cause serious long-term mental and physical injury including traumatic brain injury, coma, spinal cord injury, and broken bones.
Some of the causes of drownings include:
- Untrained, poorly trained, or inattentive life guards
- Overcrowded pools
- Inadequately maintained pools including failure to maintain water clarity so swimmers in trouble can be easily seen
- Inadequate lighting areas around pool
- Broken or non-existent emergency phone near pool
- Broken or defective pool equipment
- Failure to have clearly identified depth markers
- Failure to follow state safety laws
- Failure to maintain self-latching and closing gates that keep small children from entering the pool area without adult supervision
- Lack of safety and rescue equipment
Pool Entrapment
Although drains are necessary to keep pools clean, they actually pose a considerable threat to swimmers. Improper installation, maintenance, or use of pool drains can result in terrible accidents. In fact, pool drains where found to pose such a threat that a federal law was enacted in 2007 requiring all public pools to install drain covers.
The main hazard of pool drains is the force of the suction. A body part, hair, or piece of clothing can get sucked up against the drain trapping the swimmer and potentially causing them to drown. Inadequate, unfastened, broken, or missing drain covers can also result in a gruesome injury known as evisceration or disembowelment (having one’s intestines pulled out of the body by the drain’s suction force). Children are particularly at risk of suffering a pool drain injury because once sucked into the drain, they lack the strength to pull themselves away. It only takes minutes for a trapped child to drown. Special anti-entrapment devices known as Safety Vacuum Release Systems (SVRS) even exist that detect if there is something blocking the drain and automatically shut down to prevent drownings.
The experienced personal injury lawyers of Terry, Terry, and Stapleton understand your needs and are here to help you and your family through the process of being injured in a swimming pool accident or losing a loved one to a swimming pool drowning accident. If you have been affected by a drowning or other swimming pool accident, then you may have the right to take legal action. Contact the Knox County personal injury lawyers at Terry, Terry, and Stapleton today to learn more about your legal options. Please take the time to discuss your case with us by calling 1-800-518-3779 or filling out our online form.
