With summer looming just ahead and with a lot of beaches deserted because of the oil spill, a lot of people are expected to beat the heat by having fun in their house pools.

Unfortunately, a 5-year old boy from Rolando, San Diego had a fatal drowning accident when he drowned in a pool at the single-family home.

The accident, which was reported at around seven in the evening, said that the boy was found floating in the pool. Paramedics allegedly tried to resuscitate the boy but failed. The police did not provide other details about how the child got into the pool or how long he was left unattended.

Fatal drowning accidents are fairly common among children, 1 in 5 fatal drowning victims are children aged 14 and younger according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Drowning is in fact the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children ages 1 to 14 years.

In warm-climate states like California, where a number of houses have their own private pools, drowning accidents especially during the summer season happen quite often. There are a number of factors which can be blamed for such child drowning accidents:

•    Lack of proper adult supervision/attention over the child
•    Negligence on the part of the owner of a swimming pool to install a proper four-sided pool fence
•    Dangerous manufacturing or design defect of the swimming pool/hot tub/spa
•    The fence or gate around the pool was defectively installed

Generally, if such elements were present when your child drowned or almost drowned, these may constitute negligence on the part of the owner.

If such is the case, the parents of the injured or deceased child may file a personal injury claim or a wrongful death lawsuit as the situation may warrant. Drowning accidents can be prevented, had the liable party or the pool owner taken the appropriate measures and precautions to prevent unattended children from wandering into his open pool and drowning.

Most child drowning accidents occur in residential pool areas and in the span of 5 minutes out of sight of a parent or guardian, a child can drown. Simple barriers such as a 4-sided pool fence could have easily avoided such catastrophe.

Seek the advice of a personal injury lawyer to find out if you can hold the pool owner liable for his negligence.