Half of those children drown in swimming pools. And males are victims
four times as often as females, the report by the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention found.

Between 2005 and 2009, more than 3,800 people of all ages drowned
annually nationwide. Another 5,700 people went to the hospital in
near-drowning incidents. Of these, 50 percent were hospitalized or
transferred for additional care, the report authors said.

Many who survived suffered irreversible brain damage, said report
co-author Dr. Julie Gilchrist, a medical epidemiologist in the CDC‘s
Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention.

Precautions that parents can take include blocking access to swimming
pools, increasing vigilance and starting swimming lessons, experts said.

There’s good research that swimming lessons for kids 1 to 4 can be
lifesavers, Gilchrist said. “It would be really nice for children to have
the skills so they can manage themselves in the rare event that they end
up in the water and survive long enough so parents can find them and get
them out,” she said.

In many cases involving home pools, parents are unaware that their
child has sneaked out of the house, Gilchrist said. “That’s why you have
to have barriers, something that will slow down your child’s access to the
water,” she said.

The report was published in the May 18 issue of the CDC’s Morbidity
and Mortality Weekly Report.

Here are some tips from the American Academy of Pediatrics:

• All caregivers should learn CPR.
• Never leave a toy in or around a pool.
• Never leave a child alone in or near a pool.
• Make sure an adult is always within arm’s length.
• Children ages 1 to 4 years old should take swimming lessons. But
  remember that teaching children to swim does not guarantee their safety in
  the water.
• Teach children to never run, push or jump on others around water.
  Teach them never to swim alone.
• Keep a phone by the pool, along with rescue equipment, such as a life
  preserver and a shepherd’s hook — a long pole with a hook at the
  end.
• Pools should be surrounded by a fence at least 4-feet high. Pool gates
  should self-close and self-latch at a height unreachable by small
  children.
• If you have an inflatable or plastic pool, empty it after each use and
  turn it upside down.

More information

For more on drowning prevention, visit Safe Kids USA..

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/drowning-leading-cause-kids-accidental-death-cdc-180609851.html

A man and a child have been found dead after the boat they were travelling in overturned at a weir in the River Avon.

The child was recovered from the water in Barford, near Warwick, shortly before 8.30pm on Saturday and the man was found shortly after 10pm following a full-scale search by emergency services.

Both were declared dead at the scene. Two more children, who were pulled from the water earlier, are being treated in hospital.
The adult and three children had been in a small rowing boat which had capsized, the ambulance service said.

One of the youngsters is in a serious but stable condition in Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Warwickshire Police said. The second child is being treated at Warwick Hospital and is described as conscious but poorly.

The names of the dead will not be released until formal identification processes have been completed, police said.

Emergency services were first called to the weir incident at around 5.35pm, after the small boat the four were travelling in capsized.

West Midlands Ambulance Service said two of the children were pulled out of the water, which was in full flow, by a resident and a police officer. One of the two youngsters had suffered a cardiac arrest and was given CPR by the resident and the policeman before paramedics arrived.

The child was taken to Warwick Hospital by land ambulance before being transferred to Birmingham’s Children Hospital.

The incident prompted a major recovery operation involving Warwickshire Police, West Midlands Ambulance Service, Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service and Severn Area Rescue.

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Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/05/13/river-avon-accident-man-and-child-dead_n_1512480.html

Two children were taken to hospital and a search has been launched for another child and an adult missing after an incident at a weir, West Midlands Ambulance Service said.

A spokesman for the service said the circumstances of the incident were not yet clear but it is thought a boat may have gone down a weir in the Barford area of Warwick, Warwickshire.

Numerous emergency resources were sent to the scene and officers were searching the river for the missing adult and child.

It is not yet known how all four are related, or how old the children are.

The two youngsters who have been located have been taken to hospital and one is more seriously injured than the other, the spokesman said,

Emergency services were called around 5.35pm today and resources including Midlands Air Ambulances from Strensham and Cosford, land ambulances, the Hazardous Area Response Team and a number of senior paramedic officers were deployed.

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Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/05/12/two-people-missing-after-weir-incident-warwick_n_1511906.html