"swimming pool safety"

Published on: August 22, 2024

Girl, 3, drowned at Miami-Dade County Park in Hialeah over the weekend.

A 3-year-old drowned Saturday in a lake at the Amelia Earhart Park in Hialeah after she was separated from her family member, police say.

Alarm bells were sounded when the family member told park rangers they could not find the little girl. Park officials began searching and found the child’s body in one of the five lakes on the 515-acre property. Emergency responders took the child to Palmetto General Hospital where she later died.

In May, Miami-Dade County unveiled new enhancement plans for the park, including a new recreation center with a pool and splash pad.

Published on: July 2, 2024

Police investigating after 5-year-old drowned in Miami-Dade pool. What to know to stay safe in the water this summer

By Leesfield & Partners

A 5-year-old boy died Thursday night after drowning in the backyard pool of a home in Miami-Dade County, according to reporting from The Miami Herald.

Emergency responders were called out to the home, located on the 14800 block of SW 168th Terrace, just before 8 p.m. Thursday. The boy was taken to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital for emergency treatment but was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Additional details were not immediately available Friday. The incident is under investigation by the Miami-Dade Homicide Detectives.

Published on: April 18, 2014

Fatal Electrocution of 7-year-old boy in North Miami likely caused by Code Violation

By Leesfield & Partners

7-year-old Calder Sloan was in his swimming pool with Gary, the son of his nanny, who was watching Calder and his younger brother Caleb in their home in North Miami Beach when the unthinkable happened. Gary felt a shock and jumped out of the water yelling for Calder to do the same. Calder did not hear him as he was swimming under water at the time. A split second later, Calder was thrown out of the water. Neighbors rushed to the backyard, performed CPR while getting zapped themselves.

Calder was rushed to Jackson North Medical Center, but the young boy could not survive the jolt of electricity that went through his body. The Miami Herald reported power source could have been as much as 120 volts.

A photograph of the pool light showed rust and corrosion which further evidences an electrical circuit issue with the repairs. Calder’s father, Chris Sloan, told media that about nine months ago, he had an electrician fix the pool light which was not working properly.

Published on: April 16, 2014

Tivoli Park Management is to blame for drowning of twin toddlers say residents

By Leesfield & Partners

Last week, two year-old twin sisters Harmony and Harmani West tragically drowned in the swimming pool of their apartment complex, Tivoli Park, in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Since the incident, while the parents are attempted to cope with their brutal and unfair loss, residents and neighbors have clearly and unequivocally placed the blame on the management company for the family’s loss.

“The doors don’t lock.” Residents said in no uncertain terms that the door and gate to the pool is always open. Lou Pena, a fellow resident at Tivoli Park told police and news reporters that the pool door “never locks. Anyone can go in whenever they want I don’t blame a little child for wandering in it was going to happen sooner or later.”

As discussed last week in our first entry on this tragedy, Florida Law imposes that residential swimming pools be fenced in. At the time of passage of the new law, drowning was the leading cause of death of young children in the state of Florida. The Legislature received testimony of experts throughout the legislative process confirming that constant adult supervision is the key to accomplishing the objective of reducing the number of submersion incidents, and that when lapses in supervision occur a pool safety feature designed to deny, delay, or detect unsupervised entry to the swimming pool will reduce drowning incidents.

Published on: April 9, 2014

Broken lock on swimming pool fence of Deerfield Beach complex leads to the fatal drowning of two twin toddlers

By Leesfield & Partners

Harmani and Harmony West were just 2 years old, yesterday in Deerfield Beach, they drowned in the pool of the apartment complex in which they lived with their mother. The apartment complex, Tivoli Park, has 6 pools and spas according to their website, all of which are gated with a locked door to prevent these exact incidents to occur. Witnesses did tell authorities that the lock on the pool in which the two small children drowned was broken and did not prevent the toddlers to gain access to the water.

According to the responding officers, a couple visiting from North Carolina who was staying at Tivoli Park noticed a girl floating in the pool as the man made its way to the hot tub. He jumped in the pool and dragged the girl’s body out of the pool as quickly as he could. The woman then noticed a second body. The couple called 911 and efforts to resuscitate were undertaken aggressively performed by CPR. One of the girl was taken to Broward Health Medical Center by ambulance, the other by air, but later that night, both girls were pronounced dead at the hospital.

The early investigation of the officers has shown that somehow the twin girls had somehow been able to exit their apartment and walked to the pool area. The pool was gated, but the lock on the gate was broken and the girls ended up in the pool.