In addition, more than 2,000 children in that age group are treated in hospital emergency rooms for submersion injures. Nationally, drowning is the fourth leading cause of death to children under five. Pool submersions involving children happen quickly.
Toddlers are inquisitive and impulsive and lack a realistic sense of danger.
These behaviors, coupled with a child's ability to move quickly and unpredictably, make swimming pools particularly hazardous for households with young children. A child can drown in the time it takes to answer a phone. Seventy-seven percent of the victims had been missing from sight for 5 minutes or less. Child drowning is a silent death. There's no splashing to alert anyone that the child is in trouble.