May 24, 2007 12:33 am US/Pacific
How Safe Is Your Swimming Pool?
by David Goldstein
LOS ANGELES (CBS) ―
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How safe is your swimming pool?
AP
California's backyards are home to over one million pools -- the most in the nation. With that distinction comes a grim statistic -- California is second only to Florida in drowning deaths.
We reviewed inspection reports from counties in Southern California -- and found pools in dangerous conditions. Dirty, broken fences, or many with no fences at all.
We discovered repeat violations. One apartment complex in San Bernardino was cited four times in two years by the county for serious safety violations. The final one was issued on June 23, 2005, when a broken gate was ordered fixed.
Some residents say it wasn't; the owner says it was. Nevertheless, the next day 3-year-old Adrian Alejandre fell in and drowned.
"Everything came to a halt, a sudden end. I don't have words to describe it, but it's a huge wound that I have inside of me and always will," Adrian's mother, Esther Alejandre, said through a translator.
Records show the owner, Ed Harding, is no stranger to the law. His pools have been repeatedly cited for safety violations.
When contacted, Harding denied his pools have been in poor condition.
"It's also rusted over here as well."
In nearby Riverside, county pool inspector Robert Hunt is finding serious problems. He recently shut down this pool because of breaks in the fence.
"This is a situation where children can get struck or they enter the pool and drown," Hunt said.
In these cases, the culprits were broken fences. But we found apartment buildings throughout Southern California with no fences -- and it's legal.
"They are not breaking the law and that's the tragedy of it."
Billie Weiss is the former director of L.A. County's' public health department and a drowning prevention advocate.
Eighty-five percent of the apartment buildings in Los Angeles County are not required by law to have a fence.
The law treats houses and apartment buildings differently. It says courtyard style apartment buildings like this one built before 1994 don't need a fence. The actual apartment building itself is considered an enclosure.
That does little to protect the children living just steps from the pool.
"This is a great example of something that you would see and say, 'how is something like this allowed?'" Weiss says.
But it is -- no fencing is required for this and thousands of other pools.
"Technically we can't make you do it," Hunt said. "Unfortunately we cannot require them to put up one, so it has to be the owner's choice.
L.A. County pool inspector Sarkas Karjian can do little about pools like this one.
"My recommendation is that one day they change the law so it would be required to have a pool enclosure around every pool," Karjian says.
Changing laws requires fighting the powerful pool industry, says Weiss.
"We need to push harder. We need not be accepting of being pushed back by the industry about these apartment pools; there's no reason why we shouldn't," Weiss says.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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