Yesterday I heard the news about a 6 year old boy who died in a swimming pool near my home town in Holland. He was going off the slide in a swimming pool located at a camping. At the top of the slide he blocked the water until there was enough to increase his speed going down the slide. He had build up so much speed that he ended up hitting his head at the wall on the opposite side of the pool. Result: a broken neck and ultimately dead. They tried to resuscitate but it was already too late.

There were no lifeguards on duty. There usually isn’t one in a swimming pool on a camping or caravan park. It kind of made me wonder where the parents were. No one noticed until he was already dead. Wasn’t anyone watching this kid? I would never let my child swim unsupervised anywhere. An accident can happen just like that. It is the responsibility of a parent to always watch their children.

A story like this really saddens me. As a lifeguard I know all the dangers of a swimming pool. What he did is a common thing for kids to do. I understand that it’s fun to do, but people don’t realize how dangerous it is. Maybe an accident like this will wake them up and open up some eyes.

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Last April a horrible accident happened in the swimming pool of Hotel Stone Palace in Colakli, Turkey. The guts of a four year old Dutch girl named Lieke Krebber got sucked out by a swimming pool pump. I don’t know about you, but I am horrified by it. I get a sick feeling in my stomach by just thinking about it. The poor girl barely survived and has already had four surgeries.

So how did this horrific accident happen?

The family Krebber-Bramel was on holiday in Colakli when they went swimming in the swimming pool of the Stone Palace Hotel. The four year old girl was playing in a pool of 50 centimeters deep. The parents thought it would be safe enough to let her play there by herself because Lieke was already having swimming lessons in water that is 1.20 meters deep. Her parents left her there by herself and disappeared to a swimming pool outside.

The roster that is usually covering the water discharge drain was gone. The result: The powerful suction of the swimming pool pump sucked Lieke to the drain and sucked her guts out. The poor girl would have been dead if she had not been saved by another Dutch couple. The couple held her head above water, stopped the suction and dragged her out of the drain.

Who is to blame?

The parents are suing the Hotel Stone Palace in Colakli. Rightly so in my opinion, because they should have had a roster on that drain. Unfortunately this is not the first time an accident has happened because the suction of a swimming pool pump is so powerful. People have died because of this. The swimming pools always have to make sure that their pool is safe to swim in. I have heard (although I don’t have that confirmed) that the hotel had been notified of the missing roster twice before the accident actually happened. If that is true than that is very, very neglectful.

But, even though I think the swimming pool is definitely at fault, my first thought when I heard this story was: Where were the parents? Why on earth would you leave a four year old girl all alone? Don’t they know that a pool of 50 cm deep is still enough to drown in? As a parent you are responsible for your own child!!!! You should never leave your child alone in a pool if it can’t swim.

How about the lifeguards? From what I have heard I am not sure if they had lifeguards on duty. I know a lot of hotels don’t have lifeguards and you can swim on your own risk. If they did have lifeguards on duty I think they should have a) closed that pool because it wasn’t safe to swim in b) paid more attention to what happened and save that girl instead of that other couple.

This accident was horrific and the poor girl will have to live with the consequences for the rest of her life.