Safety is stressed after drowning

Marisa O’Neil

Authorities on Wednesday stressed the importance of poolside safety,

following the second drowning death of a toddler this month in

Newport-Mesa.

Christian Diaz, 2, who was found at the bottom of a Costa Mesa

apartment complex swimming pool, died at 6:26 p.m. on Sunday at Hoag

Hospital, Orange County Supervising Deputy Coroner Larry Esslinger

said.

Police said that Christian wandered out of an apartment in the 300

block of West Wilson Street just before 6 p.m. while his mother was

taking a nap.

“The child got outside while his mother was sleeping and somehow

found his way into the gate-protected swimming pool,” Costa Mesa

Police Sgt. Marty Carver said. His mother found him at the bottom of

the pool, after waking and being unable to find the boy in the house,

Caver said.

Police investigated the drowning and found no evidence of neglect,

he said.

It was the fifth toddler drowning in Orange County this year, fire

prevention specialist Brenda Emrick said.

Taylor Ackroyd, 3, drowned May 5 in a poolside spa in a Newport

Beach condominium complex. Police said his father had left him alone

in the pool area with a teenage sibling for less than three minutes.

When he came back, he found Taylor at the bottom of the spa. It

appeared there was a miscommunication about who was watching the

child, and charges were not filed, police said.

A small child can drown in only two inches of water in a very

short time, Emrick said.

“If you have a pool or access to a pool, you have to be thinking

beyond: ‘My kid’s not going to do that,’” she said.

Parents have to think of multiple layers of protection, she said.

“Constant, constant adult supervision,” she said. “Not brothers,

not sisters -- one adult for every child in the water. Know CPR. Have

resources by the pool for rescue -- a hook, a life preserver.”

Swimming lessons help add another layer of protection, she said,

but don’t prevent all drownings. Neither do flotation devices.

Drowning is the second-leading cause of injury-related death of

children younger than 14, according to a 2004 study by the National

Safe Kids Campaign.

Of those, boys under 4 most frequently drown.