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CPSC Warns About the Risk of Swimming Pool Accidents from Defective Drain Covers

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced a recall of about 1 million pool drain covers because of the risks of entrapment from the use of these covers.  These defective drains do not meet the new standards set by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

According to Inez Tenenbaum, the chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, public pool owners and operators must replace all of their potentially defective pool drain covers with those that meet the new standards.  In 2008, a new law mandated the use of drain covers to raise the risk of entrapment of children.

The law came in response to a number of incidents around the country involving children who were sucked down by the massive suction exerted by the drain.  The pressure can be strong enough to keep a child under the water until he or she dies.  In some cases, children have been disemboweled, either dying horrific deaths or suffering terrible injuries.

An investigation by the Consumer Product Safety Commission later found that many drain covers that had been used to cover drains in response to the 2008 law had been certified by labs that failed to use proper safety standards.  The Consumer Product Safety Commission investigated the drain covers for months, pored through more than 70,000 pages of documents from testing agencies, before the agency finally came to the conclusion that the tests had been shoddy.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission now says that all the pool drain covers will need to be replaced.  These drain covers have inaccurate flow ratings.  The only pools that are exempt are multiple mainframes or gravity drainage systems.

The pool drain covers that have been included in the recall are those manufactured by Color Match Pool Fittings of Surprise, Ariz, AquaStar Pool Products of San Diego, Pentair Water Pool and Spa of Sanford N.C., Custom Molded Products of Tyrone, Ga,

In 2008, Congress passed the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act.  The law is named after eight-year-old Virginia Graeme Baker, the granddaughter of former US Secretary of State James Baker.  Virginia was playing in her family’s hot tub when she became stuck to the drain.  Her mother tried to extricate her from the drain with no success.  Virginia died.  At the time of her death, she was a member of her school and dive and swim team.

Her mother has lobbied tirelessly for pool safety legislation.  Virginia’s family and Safe Kids Worldwide has lobbied Congress to support a law that would require anti-entrapment drain covers in pools, hot tubs and spas around the country.  The legislation was sponsored by Representative Debbie Wasserman of Florida.  In 2007, President Bush signed it into law.  California pool accident lawyers have supported the law, but the federal administration has failed to implement the law effectively, with the result that we have thousands of drains covers laws that have not been tested properly.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of swimming pool accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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