1. The documents provide data on over 2,400 drowning deaths and analyze factors like supervision, location, and caregiver responsibility.
2. Lack of supervision, alcohol/drug impairment of supervisors, and unattended water sources like pools and lakes contributed to many drowning incidents.
3. Recommendations to prevent future drowning deaths include education campaigns, improving child protective services, enacting new safety laws, and modifying public spaces near bodies of water.
Lilac Illustrated Social Psychology Presentation.pptx
Drowning Deaths: Supervision Lapses and Impairment Often Contribute
1. All Drownings and Layer of
Protection Breached
Categories are not mutually exclusive
700 664
600
500
400 347
300
200
128
100 74 63 79
29 12 29 12 18 18
0
2. Child Used Drugs or Alcohol
Leading up to Drowning
n-=712
Ages 15 - Over 18
Ages 10-14 18 Years Old
Yes Count 8 48 10
% 3% 12% 45%
No Count 161 186 6
% 53% 48% 27%
N/A Count 40 16 0
% 13% 4% 0%
UK Count 95 136 6
% 31% 35% 27%
Total Count 304 386 22
% 100% 100% 100%
3. Drowning Deaths by Manner
N=2,440
Suicide
0%
Homicide
4%
Accident
92% Undetermined
2%
UK Pending
1% 1%
Natural
0%
4. Did an Act of Omission or Commission Cause or
Contribute to the Death
N=2,440
Under Ages Ages Ages Ages
age 1 1 - 4 5 - 9 10-14 15-18
No
25%
Yes/Probable 78% 67% 57% 35% 26%
Yes/Pro-
bable
56%
No 9% 18% 20% 41% 47%
UK
19% 13% 15% 23% 24% 27%
Unknown
100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Total
5. Type of Act
N= 1,355
Categories are not mutually exclusive
800
690
700
Caused
600
Contributed
500
400
303
300
200
100 81 73 68
56 43
26 26 14
2 0 6 1
0
Poor/absent Child abuse Child Other neg. Assault, not Suicide Other
suprvsn neglect abuse
6. Supervision
Percentage of Drowning Deaths By Percentage of Drowning Deaths By
Supervision Level Supervisor Impairment
n=2440 (Supervision="no, not needed" excluded)
n=2104
No, but
needed
34% No
12%
Yes
No, not 50%
needed
14%
Yes UK
39% 38%
Not
Specified
8% Unable to
determine
5%
7. Supervision Level
Drowning deaths only All Accidental Deaths in System
Not Specified 201 8.2% Not Specified 1731 9.6%
No, not No, not
needed 336 13.8% needed 5610 31.1%
No, but No, but
needed 831 34.1% needed 2265 12.6%
Yes 960 39.3% Yes 7555 41.9%
Unable to Unable to
determine 112 4.6% determine 881 4.9%
Total 2440 100.0% Total 18042 100.0%
8. Type of Impairment
(Supervision="no, not needed" excluded)
(n=1052 marked "impaired" in 2104 cases)
Categories are not mutually exclusive
600
561
62 of 2104
500
cases were
supervisor drug
400 and/or alcohol
impaired. 331
(Count of 62 is
300 mutually
exclusive.)
200
112 120
100
30 38
14 5
0
Drug Alcohol Asleep Distracted Absent Illness Disability Other
9.
10. Toddler Juan Cardenas
Feb. 2012: A one-year-old child from Indiana who died Wednesday is believed to
have drowned in the baptismal pool of a church where he regularly attended daycare.
Employees at Praise Fellowship Assembly of God in Indianapolis found Juan Cardenas
Wednesday afternoon in a pool used to perform baptisms, which was filled with
about two feet of standing water. The toddler had become lost in the church shortly
after arriving for daycare.
Investigators are now interviewing witnesses to determine what went wrong at the
daycare center, which was cited for 18 minor violations the last time it was inspected
in November 2011. "We have our homicide investigators here, along with members
of our child abuse team trying to determine how the child actually got there,"
"This was preventable," Emily Barrow of Child Care Answers in Indianapolis told the
Star. "Licensed facilities have a sight and sound regulation; child care ministries do
not."
11. Teenager Robert Harris
September 2011: A 17-year-old Federal Way boy died
Saturday evening after swimming in Lake Tapps, a
reservoir that's a popular recreational destination.
Harris had been at a family barbecue when he went
into the lake to retrieve a football. He then began to
struggle and disappeared into the water, according to
the reports. Family members swam out to where he
had last been seen but couldn't find him.
On the Lake Tapps North Park website, a warning states that the lake is fed by water from
a glacier: "Lake Tapps water averages 50 degree in the summers — this is not the same as
air temperature.“ Paramedic Jewitt said that the cold water "is very debilitating ... even
for a strong swimmer.“
He said it seemed to him that his unit was answering an average of two calls a year
reporting drowning at Lake Tapps. "They're horrible calls to run, just horrible," he said
12. Little Abal Gavin
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — A 2-year-old boy has died,
less than a day after he fell into a backyard pool
during a family gathering….the door was left open
to the pool….Police are calling this case a tragic
accident, and no charges will be filed.
13. Baby Ishan Patel
Feb 2012. "From the day her son was born,
Neha Patel said, she hated him. On Thursday,
that hatred reached a fatal level, according to
the Polk County Sheriff's Office. Investigators
said Patel slapped Ishan, her 1-year-old son,
then purposefully left him alone to drown in a
bathtub half full of water at their Lakeland
home. When she returned 10 minutes later
and found him unconscious, she refused to
perform CPR, even though she knew the
procedure, the sheriff's office said.
This absolutely makes me sick," Polk County
Sheriff Grady Judd after hearing of Patel's
confession. "To think of the torture that this
child endured is beyond imagination.
14. Toddler Grant Hayes
May 2011, Enumclaw, WA: The water was too
deep, the river too strong and the boy too
young. He was 2½, and he died Friday. He’d
been camping with his parents in the
Greenwater area, east of Enumclaw. One
uncertain step, and the rain-swollen
Greenwater River swept him away, according
to Ed Troyer, Pierce County Sheriff’s
spokesman.
The boy’s mother and a family friend, who also brought children, were making
lunch at a campsite near the river. The boy’s father was due to arrive later. Both
parents work for local law enforcement agencies. Troyer declined to say which
ones. The boy was sitting in a small chair, waiting for lunch. The next moment,
he was gone.
Troyer said the incident serves as a grim warning to holiday campers and
picnickers: “Stay out of creeks and rivers,”
16. CPS Histories
Percentage of Drowning Deaths Percentage of Drowning Deaths by
By Open CPS Case with Child History of Child Maltreatment
n=2440 n=2440
No No
66%
171 of 43%
Yes Yes
252 cases
5% 10%
were
identified
UK
thru CPS
29%
UK
47%
Of the yes, 50% were
infants
17. Caregiver Responsibility Study
Vignette Caregiver Some Caregiver Significant?
not responsibility responsible- P value
responsible- neglect definitely
no neglect related neglect
10 month old in 1.4% 37.3% 61.2%
bathtub-mom
answers doorbell
Mom had prior 0.4% 28.2% 71.4% .018
CPS 3 years
earlier
3 yr old poor boy 2.9% 56.2% 40.9%
at picnic,
wanders to
pond. Parents
distracted
Same story-but 2.5% 51.5% 46% .500
boy not poor
19. Secondary Prevention:
Primary Prevention:
Helping hurt kids and
Keeping kids from
families: Improve CPs
getting hurt
Practices
Media campaign
Provider education Improve reporting
Parent education Improve assessments
Patient education Provide services
School Program Improve services
Community Project Change policy
Other prevention project Pass a law
New policies Train workers
New/amended laws Increase funding
Modify consumer product
Recall consumer product
Modify space
Other, specify
20. Media campaign 145
School program 64
Community safety project 170
CDR Team Provider education 70
Parent education 194
Recommendations Public forum 28
Other education 58
and Actions New policy 35
Revised policy 22
New program 18
New services 15
Expanded services 19
New law 47
Amended law 23
Enforcement of law 31
Modify consumer product 8
Recall consumer product 2
Modify public space 20
Modify a private space 30
Other 46
Total 1045