The Importance of a Self Closing Pool Gate

Tonight, here in Tampa, one of our local news channels presented its annual awards to citizens who have made a difference in somebody's life. One of the winners was a 5 year old boy who saved his 2 year old sister's life when she fell into the family's swimming pool. This family had a pool fence; however, it had the old-fashioned fold-back gate and the fold-back gate was left in the open position. That is how the 2 year old got into the pool.

This incident, which could have turned deadly, would never have happened if the pool fence system had been installed with a self-closing, self-latching gate. . Many adults have access to the pool, i.e., pool service people, pool repair people and others. Too many times an adult walks away from the pool and leaves the fold-back gate in the open position. Parents, it is so important to realize that a self-closing gate makes a pool safety fence so much safer. The fence can never, ever accidentally be left open and a small child can never wander through the fence and fall into the swimming pool. There is absolutely no doubt that a self-closing gate is a necessity.

Self Closing Pool Fence Gate

We recently answered a call from a customer who needed a pool safety fence installed and had been calling around to get estimates. The reason she called Pool Guard of Tampa Bay was because of our self-closing gate that she saw in one of our advertisements. She liked the safety aspect and the convenience of such a pool gate, but when she called around for estimates she was told she could only be provided with a telephone estimate and was told that self-closing pool gates were expensive and were not safe. I told her that I believe the self-closing gate is the most important feature of a pool fence and offered to bring one by her home to show her the quality of the Pool Guard pool fence gate and to provide her with a free in-home estimate. She agreed and after seeing the reliability and sturdiness of the Pool Guard pool gate design she scheduled an installation.

This customer later took the time to write me a letter thanking me for the on-site estimate, saying she did hours of research by telephone and internet, but truly didn't understand the benefits of the gate or the different quality levels of the materials available under I took the time to meet with her. She ended the letter by saying that any pool safety fence company can quote you a low-ball price over the phone, but because this pool safety fence literally could mean the difference between life and death, it really warrants a face to face visit by a pool fence professional before a decision should be made.

Kevin Post
Pool Guard of Tampa Bay

Installing Pool Fencing Can Save Your Child's Life

With summer right around the corner and school ending, it is time to think about pool safety!

Swimming pool drownings are the leading cause of death for children under the age of five years old. So give serious consideration this summer to installing pool fencing for your home swimming pool for your child, grandchild or neighborhood children.

• Pool fencing is intended to prevent a child from having access to a swimming pool unless a responsible adult is present.
• Pool fencing that is at least 4 feet high, with vertical openings less than 4-inches wide and with a self-closing and self-latching pool gate is considered adequate.
• The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends the installation of pool fencing be at least 5 feet high. These characteristics distinguish pool fencing from property-line fencing, which merely separates yards with swimming pools from neighboring properties.

Pool Fences Are The Only Barrier With Proven Effectiveness

KTNV ABC Channel 13 released an article on their site, "Plan a Satisfying -- and Safe -- Summer of Pool Enjoyment". The article talks about how constant adult supervision is vital in saving your child from drowning in the pool. The article also notes that in addition to adult supervision, pool fences or pool barriers with a properly functioning pool gate can provide a second layer of security.

"Pool fences can give parents the time they need to realize their child is missing and to re-establish eye-to-eye contact."

Station KTNV has hit the nail on the head. One of the most important factors dealing with swimming pool safety is 'safer water'. A pool fence or pool barrier placed around a swimming pool definitely creates not only 'safer water', but 'safer children'.

Additionally, Pool Guard utilizes the D&D Technologies magna-latch on every Pool Guard self-closing, self-latching, walk-thru gate it manufactures. A self-closing gate renders a pool fence safer because the pool fence can never accidentally be left open.

Child Drowning Prevention - Real Life Story

At Pool Guard, we are on the business of putting up pool safety fences and the more we stress to our customers how important it is to be safe the less they want to spend.

A couple of weeks ago we got a phone call to do an estimate at a house in Plantation, Florida. We did the estimate and the homeowner told us that an child had drowned and he/she was in coma. We installed their pool fence and a few days later we got another phone call to do an estimate at the same neighborhood. We went there, the homeowners were away at the hospital, we only communicated with them by phone, and then we found out that their son was at the hospital.

We put 2 and 2 together, and sure enough they were the parents of the child that near drown.

We later found out that that they HAD the pool fence but never put up (paid somebody to install). We had them scheduled to install the fence today, my installer gets there this morning and we found out that the child had died.

As a mother my heart is broken, I can not explain the pain and my sympathy to this family enough; but I am also angry because this situation could have been prevented.

Do you want to know what is even worse? We did an estimate for this child’s uncle best friend and we found out that a few years ago the uncle lost a child (also drowned in the pool) and now this one dies. This is the second death in this family due to drowning and even after the child drowned and while in coma, the parents were shopping for the best price on the pool fence installation.

This is crazy.

The Young Family

Safety Fences Help Prevent Swimming Pool Drownings

AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION COULD SAVE A LIFE - Perhaps YOUR child’s life!

In preventing the drowning of children and for all swimming pool safety, the most important choice you make is the type of removable mesh safety fencing you choose for your swimming pool area - including the pool safety gate.

Talk with a contractor who is willing to visit your home and evaluate your needs based on the size, shape and location of your swimming pool, how many children you have and how old they are and any other special needs you might need to consider. Families should consider the safety of their pets around a swimming pool as well. Beyond keeping your pet safer from drowning, it can keep them safer if you are doing any special cleaning of your swimming pool or pool decking.

The most important hint we can offer is to be sure the latch on the gate is not able to be reached by small children, the baby safety fence if used, should be at least four feet high around the swimming pool area. There shouldn’t be any places where your child’s leg or even their foot can fit into that would enable them to climb over the fence.

My Child Can Swim - Who Needs Pool Safety Fencing?

The following link goes to an article on a non profit site that concludes from a study that pool safety fencing indeed saves small children’s lives and that a strong closing gate is an important part a safe system.

Also I found this info interesting because I hear from several potential customers that “My 3 year old child can swim because he/she had a swim class last year.”

Well, I have a 3 year old that has been through several classes and I can’t imagine trusting his safety on his current ability to swim or his judgment.

A CDC study about self-reported swimming ability (Gilchrist et al. 2000) found that:

• Younger survey respondents reported greater swimming ability than older respondents; Self-reported ability increased with level of education (i.e., high school graduate, college graduate, etc.)
• Among racial groups, African Americans reported the most limited swimming ability
• Men of all ages, races, and educational levels consistently reported greater swimming ability than women.