Hotel Pool Safety: Near Drowning Highlights Need For Hospitality Industry To Increase Pool Safety, Including Flotation Suits And Fencing

“…the hotel plans some additional safety measures, including mandatory life jackets on everyone up to 42 inches tall.”

“…One thing the general manager has already done is to introduce a swimsuit guests can buy that has flotation properties incorporated right in the suit, which cannot be taken out.”

Lori and Chad Granger’s family gathering at the Holiday Inn water park in Otsego was supposed to be a time of celebration. Instead, the couple nearly lost their three-year-old daughter after she almost drowned Jan. 16.

Family members’ children were in the pool under the watch of four lifeguards who rotated stations every half hour. Guest Paul Peikert of Rogers says his own children had been disciplined twice while in the water by watchful lifeguards.

But the day began unraveling for the Grangers when Lori left her daughter under an uncle’s care so she could greet her sister who was just arriving, according to what she wrote on a blog.

The mom continues writing that she had her three-year-old in the kiddie pool and had taken her flotation devices off so the girl could go down a kiddie water slide. Then the uncle was asked to watch her as she played.

However, after just a moment, the uncle became distracted and wandered off, leaving the little girl unattended, according to Lori‘s blog.

In that instant, accounts from family members and the Wright County Sheriff’s deputies state that the three-year-old apparently got out of the kiddie pool and jumped into a 3-foot deep adult pool to play with older cousins.

 http://erstarnews.com/content/view/11539/26/