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Senate Commerce Committee Approves Swimming Pool Safety Legislation

Amendment by Sen. Klobuchar Means New Safety Standards Will Apply to Both New and Existing Pools

July 19, 2007

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) Today, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar announced that the Senate Commerce Committee this afternoon approved new safety standards for the nation’s swimming pools.  An amendment proposed by Klobuchar, who serves on the Committee, means the stronger safety standards will apply to both new and existing swimming pools.  Earlier this week, she spoke on the Senate floor urging her colleagues to quickly vote for the pool safety legislation.

“These new safety standards are needed,” said Klobuchar, “because we must do everything we can to prevent horrific incidents like the one that severely injured a six-year-old Twin Cities girl at a local pool.”

Late last month, Abigail (Abbey) Taylor of Edina was severely injured at a wading pool in St. Louis Park when she sat over an open drain hole where the cover had apparently come loose or been removed.  The drain’s powerful suction force tore out most of her small intestines.

Nearly three weeks later, Abbey remains hospitalized after undergoing several surgeries.  She will survive, but is expected to need a feeding tube for the rest of her life.

Klobuchar said she has talked with Abbey’s father. 

“Abbey and her parents are so courageous,” said Klobuchar.  “They want to let people know what happened to their little daughter because they never want it to happen to any another child.  And, as it turns out, this type of incident has happened too many times before.”

In 2005, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a report saying that, since 1990, at least 130 people (mostly children) have been entrapped by the suction force of pool and spa drains, resulting in 27 deaths and many more emergency room visits and hospitalizations.

The legislation is named the “Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act” in memory of the seven-year-old granddaughter of former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker.  Five years ago, she drowned in a hot tub at a graduation party when the drain’s powerful suction trapped her underwater.  It took two adults to pry her body free from the drain.

Co-sponsored with Senators Mark Pryor (D-AR), Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Ted Stevens (R-AK), the legislation would:
- Prohibit the manufacture, sale or distribution of drain covers that do not meet anti-entrapment safety standards established by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. 
- Create an incentive grant program for states to adopt comprehensive pool safety laws requiring certain safety devices in swimming pools to protect children.
- Establish a National Drowning Prevention Program within the Consumer Product Safety Commission. 

In the original bill, the new safety standards applied only to new pools.  Klobuchar proposed and secured Committee support for an amendment which will require that existing public pools (including those at apartment complexes, fitness clubs and other sites intended for multiple users) also be equipped with the new safety devices within one year.

Klobuchar is also working on this bipartisan legislation with House of Representatives Members Jim Ramstad (R-MN) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).

“There’s a saying that when an accident happens that could have been reasonably prevented, it’s not really an accident at all,” said Klobuchar.  “It’s actually a failure.  In the case of injuries and deaths caused by pool entrapment, it’s not a failure by children or their parents. It’s a failure of our safety laws, which means it’s within our power to correct with reasonable measures like those in this legislation.”

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