Anti-Entrapment
Suction Inlets
Hidden death-traps.
Pool pump suction
The suction developed by a pool-pump is proportional to the size of the pump but even a small pump can produce enough suction to trap a bather beneath the water resulting in drowning, or to injure or kill a bather should they come into contact with an uncapped Vacuum Point.
Consider installing a safety cut-out that opens the suction line to atmosphere instantly in the case of blockage.
Safety Vacuum Release Systems (SVRS) sense suction line blockage and automatically shut the pump off, or open the suction line to atmosphere.
The instantaneous response breaks the vacuum and allows an entrapped swimmer to escape.
Safety Vacuum Release Systems provide an important layer of protection against entrapment and death.
Vac-Alert is one system that works very well.
Main Drain - Pool entrapment Injury
Since 1985, more than 150 cases of swimming pool drain entrapment have been reported in the USA alone.
There have been at least 48 deaths over that same period in the USA.
The entrapments also have caused many serious injuries, including disembowelment of children and adults.
Pools should have a minimum of 2 main drains, separated from each other so that one person could not possibly block both main drains at the same time, or a main drain grille that has been designed to prevent entrapment, like the one in the image.
It is vitally important that main drains have the correct grilles securely installed and that they are changed every 3 years.
At the first sign of any damage to the grille - replace it.
Main drain grilles (plastic) should be routinely replaced after 3 years.
Please take the time to read this Wikipedia article.
Death of Abigail Taylor
On June 29, 2007, Abigail Taylor's parents took her to the Minneapolis Golf Club in St. Louis Park, Minnesota
Everyone was leaving the wading pool when Abigail Taylor accidentally fell on the open drain of the pool and her buttocks were sucked into the aperture
The suction dislodged a large section of her small intestine which was forcefully drawn out through the anus, a phenomenon known as transanal evisceration
The incident was similar to a 1993 incident in North Carolina involving Valerie Lakey, who was five years old at the time
Injury and subsequent death
Abigail lost 6.5 meters (21 feet) of her small intestine in the accident, leaving her with short bowel syndrome
Following the accident, Abigail was hospitalized and received a rare triple organ transplant to replace her small intestine, liver, and pancreas, all of which were damaged in the accident
She was unable to eat or drink, and she required total parenteral nutrition
Abigail died nine months after the accident from a transplant-related cancer
She was just six years old at the time of her death
Vacuum Point
Fit the safety-cap to the vacuum point when it is not in use for pool-cleaning, to prevent accidents
Suction at the vacuum point is easily strong enough to pull a small child’s’ arm into the pipe-work or to cause instant disembowelment and death to both children and adults
Even a momentary contact with a vacuum point that has been left open and un-capped can cause severe bruising of the skin
In an horrific incident in recent times a child put her mouth over a vacuum point that had been accidentally left un-capped with the vacuum valve left open
Her lungs and stomach were instantly inverted and pulled into the suction line and the poor child died instantly
Are you shocked by this vision?
I'm truly sorry if I distressed you (but perhaps now you'll remember to turn the vacuum valve off and fit the safety cap?)
