The mother of a three-year-old who was airlifted to hospital last week after being found floating in an above-ground pool says fencing the pool wasn’t worth it.
‘A lot of people have these small overground pools,’ she said, reports The Daily Telegraph.
‘The reason so many people have this pool is because it’s affordable, it’s what we can afford, it’s what everyone had.
‘You’re not going to pay hundreds of dollars for fencing for a pool that you paid $100 for, it doesn’t make any sense.’
RELATED: Grandmother blames ‘cheap’ pool floatie for toddler near-drowning
Blacktown Council had no knowledge that the pool had been put in at the rental property and say they would have checked it for safety compliance.
‘The tenant should have sought permission from the landlord, and if granted, there would have been a council pool inspection to make sure it was safe and complied with the regulations,’ Blacktown Mayor Stephen Bali said.
The 30-year-old mum says she got out of the pool to check her phone when the accident happened.
‘One of the kids said Zack’s face was in the water,’ she said.
‘I didn’t click on to it straight away because kids, you know, jump up and down in the water.’
The mum says a cheap donut floatie caused her son to flip over and get stuck with his head underwater.
‘When he said Zack was floating we turned around and we pulled him out and he had already drowned at that point … it was all under a minute.’
The mum credits her neighbour with saving her son’s life after she performed CPR at the scene. Zack was then airlifted to Westmead Children’s Hospital.
Blacktown Police say there is a degree of negligence, however no charges will be laid.
Detective Inspector Paul Tickner urges parents to not rely on inflatable toys for safety: ’Doughnuts aren’t designed to keep a child afloat there’s no way you will have a swimming instructor say ‘That’s enough to keep a child afloat’.”