WTF Stories of the Week

[Morrigoon]

Originally Posted by Betty

You know how when you were a kid the other kids told you to stay away from the drain in the bottom of the pool because it would suck you down and you would drown. Turns out - they were right.

Alan Korn, public policy director of the Washington-based nonprofit group Safe Kids Worldwide, said the vast majority of American swimmers do not realize that the bottoms of pools, spas and wading pools are hidden hazards, especially to children.

He said one person dies because of pool or spa drain suction in a typical year. His agency cited 33 deaths of children under age 14 between 1985 and 2004.

Okay, ONE person, in AMERICA, dies PER YEAR... and because of that, every public pool owner has to spend up to $15,000 to change their drains? 33 *gasp!* children over a span of 20 years, and this is considered the major threat to safety in this nation? I can think of hundreds of things that probably kill/maim/injure more children per year than this, and this is what they focus on?





(I'm not saying it isn't nice to protect the children, but let's start with the stuff more likely to kill more kids, shall we?)