Florida Injury Lawyer Blawg
Police are investigating the death of a 3-year-old girl who allegedly wandered into the backyard pool of a home and drowned over the weekend.
Police were called shortly before 6 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 10 to a home near Southwest 132nd Avenue and 119th Street, according to reporting from The Miami Herald. The girl, who has not been named publicly by authorities as of Monday, Jan. 12, was staying at the home with her family and four other siblings.
“This is a very sad and tragic event,” a police spokesperson told reporters. “We are asking the community to pray for this family.”
The family was asleep when the little girl fell into the pool. She was pulled out of the water when her parents realized she was outside. She was taken to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital in critical condition where she later died.
Drownings in Florida
Drowning is the leading cause of death for children under the age of 5, according to the Safe Children Coalition, an organization dedicated to promoting education and awareness surrounding this pressing issue. There were about 60 drowning deaths in the state for the first half of 2024, according to the latest available data. Of the 60 people who tragically lost their lives, about 46 of them were children.
No parent should ever have to endure the loss of a child. In Florida, enough children under the age of 5 years old tragically drown to fill several classrooms, according to data from the Florida Department of Health.
Leesfield & Partners
Leesfield & Partners is a personal injury law firm with nearly five decades of experience handling personal injury cases throughout Florida. Our skilled trial attorneys work tirelessly to achieve the best possible outcome for every client and have secured numerous record and landmark verdicts and settlements. These leading results have helped families affected by the immeasurable grief that comes with the loss of a child following the negligence at the hands of hotel management companies, resorts, and individuals. Leesfield & Partners has represented these grieving families with the compassion and tenacity necessary to hold all responsible parties accountable and help prevent future tragedies from occurring in the future.
In an ongoing case, Partner Justin B. Shapiro and Eric Shane, a Trial Attorney at the firm, are representing a family whose 2-year-old drowned at a Central Florida pool.
In Miami-Dade County, where Leesfield & Partners is headquartered, new residential swimming pools must meet important safety requirements before they can be approved for use. Local rules require pools to have proper safety barriers in place, and the County’s Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources (RER) will not pass a final inspection unless those protections are installed.
To meet these requirements, pool barriers must completely surround the pool, be tall enough to keep young children out, be designed to prevent climbing or squeezing through, and include a self-closing, self-latching gate. These safety rules are in place to help prevent tragic drowning accidents and keep families safe.
Previous Cases
Leesfield & Partners obtained a historic settlement in a case involving a swimming pool incident at a Hotel Resort Orlando in Osceola County. In that case, our client’s son was swimming when he was caught in the suction of the pool’s drain. The child could not be removed because the hotel failed to have an emergency shut off switch.
For nearly 10 minutes, our client’s child remained underwater. As a result, he was later diagnosed with brain damage that would require life-long medical care. This case, which was handled by Founder and Managing Partner, Ira Leesfield, is the largest result of its kind in Osceola County.
One family was forever changed when a father and husband lost his wife and two young daughters due to the U.S. Navy’s failure to maintain its pier in a safe condition.
“Ivan Grayson, tormented by the mind-numbing horror of the tragedy that wiped his family from the face of the earth, desperately needs to know why this happened,” U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King said of the case.
Grayson was awarded $2.95 million for the loss of his family.
Previously, the firm secured a seven-figure settlement for a family whose toddler drowned in South Florida. In that case, an inadequately installed child safety fence around the pool was found at the home.
The firm also represented the widow of a man who drowned while on a tour with a Florida boat company. The firm secured a $575,000 settlement in that case.
Safety Tips
Florida draws thousands of tourists each year for its warm weather and year-round recreational water activities. This means that everyone from the elderly to small children will be out on the water in boats or enjoying their time by the swimming pool. With that, it is important to take the necessary precautions to ensure that everyone can swim or is with an adult that can swim in case of an emergency. Preparation and knowledge are key and can help save lives.
Below are several safety tips that parents and other caregivers may find useful. It is important to note, however, that while these tips may be useful this list is not complete and parents should defer to safety organizations and their local first-responders for the most up-to-date information.
- Never leave a child unattended near a body of water.
- Every adult watching over children near the water should know how to swim and take a CPR course to know what to do in case of an emergency.
- Ensure that all exterior doors are fitted with alarms or alerts that will signal to an adult that one has been opened.
- Never leave pool floats, toys or balls inside or near a pool. This is to protect a child in the case that they fall into the pool while trying to reach one of these items.
- Children who cannot swim should always wear life vest and be in the water with an adult.
- All Florida pools should be equipped with child safety fences, pool covers, locks and other safety measures as outlined in state law.
- Children should always be dressed in brightly colored swimsuits so that, if the unthinkable does happen, they are easier for adults to spot in the water in case they need rescue.
- Children and adults should take swimming classes and water safety courses.
