COMMENTARY ON DROWNINGS : Hold Pool Owners to Higher Standard of Safety Than Others : A father who nearly lost his toddler in a flash crusades for tougher laws. That first panicked gulp can mean tragedy.

My wife, Diana, and I went to Disneyland recently and had a wonderful time with our son, Jeffrey. We could have easily not had the opportunity.

Jeffrey, who is 3, fell into my unprotected back-yard swimming pool 19 months ago and nearly drowned. I will certainly never forget the experience of finding my son unconscious in my pool, only seconds after I had inadvertently left him unattended.

What I did not realize is how quickly a child can drown. It can happen in just a few seconds, in the time it takes to answer a phone call or check a message off the answering machine--or in my case, to fetch a broom out of my garage.

I am convinced that my rapid discovery, along with the heroic efforts of Bill Graham, the Newport Beach police officer who happened to be nearby, saved Jeffrey’s life. I will never forget the image of my son floating face down in my pool, nor the look on his face when I pulled him out of the water. Nor will I forget the long run from my pool to my upstairs phone to make the 911 call, all the while holding his cold, limp body, and the absolute panic I felt when I administered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and nothing happened.

I have a fairly strong personality, and this experience almost broke me. Those who know me well have suggested that if things hadn’t turned out as they did, I might not have made it. I know in my heart they are right. Jeffrey was my responsibility that day, and I let him down.

Potential consequences of a different outcome weigh heavily on my heart. Sure, you would move on, but you would never be the same. Believe me, I know. I have come to know many people since the accident who have lost children or are taking care of brain-impaired drowning victims. Knowing these people, and my gratefulness to have Jeffrey back unscathed, gives me the stamina to press forward with efforts to urge pool safety.

We need to protect young children around pools because they cannot protect themselves. And childhood drowning is a preventable injury. I am getting to the point where I am reluctant to read the paper each morning for fear of reading about another pool accident involving children. There were two more in the county last week. It seems lately that pool accidents and gun accidents involving children have been dominating our local news. We simply cannot continue to accept these injuries of children.

Much has been learned about children’s behavior and swimming pools. The solution to the problem is keeping the two apart from one another. Contrary to popular opinion, swimming lessons are not reliable in preventing pool accidents involving young children. All it takes is one gulp of water in a panic situation. You can teach young children to swim, but they are not pool safe. Nor can you watch your child 100% of the time. Human behavior is such that even the most conscientious people fail--like grandparents, pediatrician parents, baby-sitters and other people, such as you and me.

The fact is that with all our medical technologies and state-of-the-art lifesaving equipment, there is not much doctors can do for a brain-impaired child. And if you have seen these children and their parents, you come to appreciate the price that these people have paid for the luxury of owning a swimming pool or spa.

Most caretakers of children don’t realize that a child is missing until it’s too late. Usually the child is inside the house, and he or she slips through an open door and simply falls into an unprotected pool or spa. Time and time again, studies have shown that there is a short lapse of parental supervision, not that the parents are bad people or negligent. So we need a solution to buy the parents a little time, enough time to discover that the child is missing--but before that discovery involves finding them in the water, when it is usually too late.

Young children and swimming pools are a deadly mix, and they must be separated by physical barriers. Pools and spas are a lethal luxury not truly appreciated for their danger. Many of the stories have similar circumstances: algae-infested pools; no safety equipment by the pool; no CPR training; no phone by the pool to save precious time. A moment’s lapse of supervision and tragedy strikes.

Pool owners simply have to accept a higher standard of responsibility. At some point, the privacy of the home and property rights have to give way to protection of the children who may be living in unsafe environments.

Much of the same logic prevailed for smoke alarms and car seats for children, and eventually laws were passed requiring people to take certain precautions. Those that believe that most people will take these safety measures on their own are simply naive.

Studies from Australia, Phoenix and Tucson--which, like Orange County, have an unusually high number of swimming pool accidents--show promising solutions to the prevention of pool and spa drownings. In these areas, laws have been enacted that require barriers around pools and spas. As a result, the numbers of drowning incidents and deaths have decreased dramatically.

Most Orange County cities require only perimeter or property-line fencing. This keeps the neighborhood children out of danger. But, as studies have shown, the children who also need protection are the ones living within the home.

We need a two-phased approach. First, we need to set the standard for new pool construction to require four-sided fencing around a pool or spa. Most problems involved in installing that kind of fencing can be handled before the pool or spa is ever built.

We also need to address the existing pools and spas, which will require more options, such as pool safety covers, alarm systems and self-closing mechanisms on doors leading to the pool area.

We need to formulate a retroactive safety ordinance built upon the layers-of-protection theory. A four-sided fence, assuming the latches are maintained properly, is safer than a cheap door-alarm system, which could be disconnected or turned off. An automatic safety pool cover provides a greater level of safety than a self-closing mechanism on a sliding glass door, which might stick or be propped open.

No product is 100% safe, and that is one of the strongest arguments for the layers-of-protection approach.

We need to overcome the reluctance of government officials who want only the bare minimum of protection. One should not compromise when it comes to the safety of our children. Since when is the cost of safety equipment, such as fencing and pool covers, more important than a child’s life?

And day-care centers should be outlawed in private homes with swimming pools. What could you possibly say to a parent who has entrusted a child’s life to you after the youngster has fallen into your pool? It’s bad enough to see your own children injured in these accidents, but someone else’s child?

The standard for day-care centers should allow no chance for these types of accidents, and that means no pools. I think our regulatory officials are asleep when it comes to recognizing the incompatibility of day-care centers and swimming pools. It just doesn’t make sense.

Parents dependent on day care should not have to worry about the pool dangers present in God knows how many day-care centers in Southern California private homes.

Pool accidents are non-discriminatory. They affect the rich and poor, the educated and uneducated. The only common denominator is children and unprotected pools.

The lesson is that layers of protection work, along with parental supervision. Education is vitally important, as well. You can legislate the use of car seats for young children, but you also have to make sure through education that people use them.

A new coalition, the Orange County Pool Safety Network, has recently been formed. We are developing a pool safety kit for parents and care-givers that will include information on fences, pool safety covers and other available products and information that can help reduce the chances of a drowning. (For information, contact the network at Children’s Hospital of Orange County in Orange (714) 532-8680.)

Fences and pool safety covers, or other swimming pool safety systems, need to be used and maintained in good condition to provide the protection we are seeking for our children. Just a few more dollars for these layers of protection would give a parent or caretaker three or four minutes, until they would most likely realize that their child is missing from the safe environment inside their home.

Doesn’t that seem like a small price to pay for something as precious as our children’s lives?