I work as a pool maintenance technician in Texas. There are laws that are pretty strict for public pools for anti-entrapment drains
From what I’ve been able to read and from what I’ve read from interviews, the pipe was like 6" wide and didn’t have a cover. I believe it was a wall return that she was sucked into. But it was plumbed backwards and so it was pulling water instead of pushing
I work with multiple river pumps and they’re frequently the biggest pumps in the pump room. So the water they return is at a pretty high flow rate and none of them have a cover on the pressure side. The ones I work with have multiple openings of an inch or two
But the main reason this happened was someone fucked up with plumbing the pump and used the discharge side for the pressure side. No idea how someone wouldn’t notice
I think I read that they didn’t disclose that they were renovating and adding a river. No idea why it wasn’t looked at either. So, so, so many levels of failure lead to this
Dunno if it changes anything, but user224 posted this link elsewhere in this discussion, and it says the pipe was 30cm (almost a foot) in diameter – I’m no expert, but the photos in this and OP’s article seem to show an opening about that size to me. I only mention it because that seemed uncommonly large to me.
This is a “someone should go to jail” level of criminal negligence.
It’s manslaughter. You kill someone with a machine, even if you weren’t trying to, it’s right up there next to murder.
Sorry, what the fuck. This is a complete failure on engineering controls and safety. A safety analysis on an industrial plant would find something like this to be a major safety vulnerability that needs several redundant safeguards.
Jesus fucking Christ.
Few few things in life get industrial plant level of analysis.
We should really change that. Things would be so much safer if we applied this level of scrutiny for anything considering the public.
Regardless of whether or not the parents were around the ability for a body to be forcibly pulled into the machinery is an obvious failure in operating a safe pool.
It’s a failure on a number of levels, failure to maintain a safe pool, AND failure to maintain a safe working environment.
And honestly the employee refusing to review security footage until the police showed up when a child was missing with the fuck?
The kind of employee that asks “is this right for the company” before doing anything.
Yeah maybe but it could also be someone desparate in a shitty low pay job who is afraid of getting fired. Just saying, not enough info
You can say that again. Growing up in Florida, I’ve been in a lot of swimming pools and water parks, and I have never seen anything like what is shown in the video attached to this article. That opening is huge. user224’s link says the pipe is 30cm (almost a foot) in diameter. Even in giant public pools I’ve been in, I can’t recall seeing an opening or fixture that size. That, coupled with a lack of any cover on it, seems so obviously dangerous. God, what an awful way to go.
My submechaniphobia is at an 11 right now, and this further confirms for me that’s it’s not really a phobia but a real legit fear.
When I managed a pool, I remember the Virginia Graeme Baker act being something I was told about pretty early on; it was a prevalent enough of a thing that sometimes trying to start up my spa’s motor wouldn’t provide a clear enough suction, and the motor would shut off for safety. A properly managed pool should never have had this risk.
Corporations are psychopaths.
well that article was exactly as awful as the headline sounds.
Blows my mind how neglectful parents are when their kids are in swimming pools. Always trying to find someone else to blame rather than their
lazy ass ‘set em up infront of the TV’ parenting style.The worst is how common it is for them to leave their children by a pool and just assume that whatever random adults are around will be watching their kids.
Edit: I didn’t say that’s what happened here. Clearly, it’s not. That doesn’t change that what I said above is super common.
Guts, by Chuck Palahniuk.
You’re welcome
Omg, is the last story they mention in that article based on a story I read on reddit once, where [CW Body Horror]
!where someone sits on a pool drain and has their intestines sucked out of their rectum?!<
I remember someone saying it happened to a young girl that ended up dying from it, and it’s still one of the most horrific things I’ve ever heard. I don’t even care if they plagiarized it from that book, I carry that anxiety with me to every pool I go to.
Her name was Abigail Taylor. She was 6.
Truly a heart-wrenching story. https://abbeyshope.org/abbeys-story/
So vacuum pipes are not required to have grates installed on them? If not for peoples safety than to at least prevent trash clogs
While there are significant regulations around intake pipes, including grates and/or having multiple intakes so that no single one can be completely obstructed to create a suction scenario where someone can be trapped, this particular pipe was found to be plumbed on the wrong side of the pump. It was sucking in water when it was supposed to be ejecting water.
This is serious for the hotel chain, franchisee, installer/contractor, and inspector. This had to fail so many checks to have occurred. It wasn’t a chance occurrence for someone to be sucked in and seriously harmed or killed with the way this was plumbed; it was a matter of time when someone was going to be seriously injured or killed.
Truly a tragedy, and I cannot for the life of me imagine the pain that family is going through right now.
