Everything You Wanted to Know about Backyard Pool Safety

The backyard pool provides the ultimate summer fun for kids, friends and family. But to keep it fun, it's important to know the risks so you can avoid danger - whether you own the pool, or you're just visiting. The single most important way to keep everyone safe is to ensure that young children are always supervised in and around the pool. If you know the risks, you can establish pool rules so everyone can stay safe and have fun.

Backyard pool safety facts:

• Most common location for children under five drowning.
• Drowning is fast and silent - not like in the movies. There's no splashing and no screaming.
• Most backyard pools are too shallow for safe diving.
• Every municipality has different bylaws for pools and fencing.

Backyard pool safety tips:

• Appoint an adult to actively supervise any children at the pool at all times.
• Keep children under five within arms' reach in and around the water.
• Control and restrict access to water - a latching gate and four-sided fencing can prevent accidents and unintended access to the water.
• Use the Society's Backyard Pool Safety Inspections Guidelines with the Backyard Pool Checklist.
• Empty/flip inflatable/kiddie pools when they're not in use.

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  Learn to Swim

  Basic swimming ability is a fundamental requirement in any meaningful attempt to eliminate drowning in Canada. The Lifesaving Society offers training programs from learn-to-swim through advanced lifesaving, lifeguarding and leadership.

  Our Swim for Life program stresses lots of in-water practice to develop solid swimming strokes and skills. We incorporate valuable Water Smart® education that will last a lifetime.

  Enhance safety in your pool (or your neighbour's pool) by using the Society's Backyard Swimming Pool Checklist, available on our website, or ask a NLS-certified lifeguard to complete the inspection. Those who do will receive the Society's Backyard Pool Safety Inspection Certificate free. Call your local pool for help finding a lifeguard to conduct this inspection.

  Swim to Survive is a Lifesaving Society survival training program. Swim to Survive is not a subsititute for swimming lessons; instead, it defines the minimum skills needed to survive an unexpected fall into deep water. People of all ages should be able to perform the Society's Swim to Survive standard.

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  Backyard pools remain the number one location
  where children under age five drown (31%)

  The biggest risk factor is lack of supervision from parents or caregivers. Almost all young victims were alone when they became immersed in water.

  The Lifesaving Society believes you must control and restrict access to the pool area with layers of protection and closely supervise these fearless toddlers - "if you are not within arms' reach, you've gone too far."

  Fencing law breaks new ground

  In May 2008, Toronto City Council revised a bylaw to require all new in-ground pools to be enclosed by a permanent four-sided fence; or, where the wall of a building forms part of the swimming pool entrance, the use of a self-closing and self-latching door is an alternative to a fourth fence.

  This is in contrast to most North American municipalities that require only a three-sided fence (with the fourth side being the house). Safety experts, including the Lifesaving Society, strongly believe this is insufficient to prevent toddlers from inadvertently accessing a backyard pool when the door is left unlocked or open.

  "With three-sided fencing, you are protecting all of your neighbours' children from coming into the pool area, but not the children in your house," said Barbara Byers, the Society's public education director. And backyard pools are the number one location for drownings of children under the age of five. Four-sided fencing that isolates the swimming pool from the home is widely acknowledged as the most effective strategy to prevent such drownings because it does not require human interaction to work - it is always in place.

  The most stringent swimming pool enclosure regulations are those in Queensland, Australia, where regulations require compulsory four-sided fencing on all outdoor residential pools, irrespective of when the pool was constructed.

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  The Lifesaving Society encourages all backyard pool owners to fence in their pools on all four sides and to ensure the pool gate is: securely fastened, self-closing, and can be locked when the pool is not in use. Backyard pools should be inspected at least annually by the pool owner or by an NLS-certified lifeguard recruited by the owner.