Orlando / Orange County Drowning Accident Lawyer
According to the Florida Department of Health’s Division of Public Health Statistics there were 13 fatal non-boating-related drowning accidents in Orange County Florida, including the City of Orlando and unincorporated areas, in 2019. This same agency also estimates that for each accidental death by drowning there are at lease 5 nonfatal accidents where a near-drowning resulted in the victim being transported to a hospital Emergency Department for potentially-lifesaving treatment. Unfortunately, many Florida downing and near-drowning accident victims are children.
Causes of drowning and near-drowning accidents
Although there are probably as many causes of drowning and near-drowning accidents as there are individual accident cases, in our experience at The Doan Law Firm we have found that most such accidents are due to one or more acts of negligence.
In law, negligence is defined as the failure to act with the degree of carefulness that would be expected of any other person faced with the same or similar circumstance. The Florida courts have held each of the following circumstances, among many others, to have been actions that were later found to be acts of negligence:
Inadequate supervision of swimmers, including failure to provide a qualified lifeguard
By Florida law the owner of any swimming facility that is open to the public must provide a trained, certified lifeguard whenever swimmers are present in a swimming pool or similar water recreation facility. Since Florida law requires that a lifeguard be on duty during a pool’s normal operating hours, the courts have held that the presence of signs stating “NO LIFEGUARD ON DUTY! SWIM AT YOUR OWN RISK!” are invalid warnings of potentially-unsafe conditions and could expose the pool’s owner to liability in case a drowning accident occurs.
Failure to insist child swimmers wear a Personal Flotation Device (PFD)
Although some children are excellent swimmers at a relatively young age, most do not develop adequate swimming skills until their mid-elementary school years. It is therefore vital that all child swimmers wear approved Personal Flotation Devices (“life preservers”) when playing in or near the water.
Additionally, Florida law requires that all children under 6 years of age must wear a Coast Guard-approved PFD when present on boats that are under 26-feet long that are in motion on a state waterway.
Failure to monitor for the presence of unsafe swimming conditions
Although each of us has the legal duty to protect others from accidental drowning, businesses such as summer camps, nursery and daycare centers, or similar operations are even more tightly governed by Florida law. In our experience, when a drowning accident occurs at a private business an investigation usually recovers evidence of negligence on the part of the business owners,
The sad fact is that most drowning accidents could have been prevented had someone taken all reasonable steps to protect the drowning accident victim from injury. Since there are far too many situations where negligence could lead to a drowning accident than can be listed here, if you suspect that your drowning accident injury as caused by the negligence of another party we urge you to contact the drowning accident injury lawyer at The Doan Law Firm to arrange a comprehensive case review and a discussion of the legal avenues that may be open to you.
When you contact the drowning accident injury lawyer at The Doan Law Firm, there is never a charge of any kind for our staff to review the facts in your case with you or for you to speak directly with our drowning accident injury lawyer to discuss the legal options that may be available to you. Should you later decide to file a drowning accident injury lawsuit, and that you would like to have our firm represent you in court, we are willing to assume full responsibility for all aspects of preparing your drowning accident injury case for trial in exchange for an agreed-upon percentage of the final settlement that we are prepared to win for you.
