COLUMBUS, Ohio — Neighbors are sharing their condolences with the family who lost a 2-year-old son in an accidental drowning Sunday afternoon near Island Club Apartments in northwest Columbus.
Just after 3 p.m., Columbus police say officers responded to a call of a drowning of a young toddler. Neighbors tell 10TV they tried to assist with life-saving measures, but they could not get a pulse on the young boy. He was taken to Nationwide Children’s Hospital where he later died.
Residents say this situation could happen to anyone, and they are now on high alert for their own children.
"It's very scary, I couldn't imagine how that mom's feeling,” shared resident Bree Burke, who lives right next to the pond. Burke said as a mother to a 3-month-old boy, her heart breaks for the family.
"My boyfriend was here and he helped them out and it was just a devastating thing… It's no fault of the parent or anything, they just move when they're ready to move,” she said. “You just can't take your eyes off of kids at all because they just go straight to the water or anything.”
Burke said it’s rare to see kids near the ponds and always sees children supervised, but what draws the children near the water are the ducks.
There have been four other reported drownings involving small children in Central Ohio in the past three months, three out of those four involving ponds.
Burke said it would be helpful if the city considered putting gates around ponds.
“I think that would be helpful, yeah. Some people might not like the way that it looks but I think it would be a very smart choice for sure," she said.
10TV reached out to Columbus Building and Zoning Services and asked what is being done to protect residents from getting hurt.
The following statement was provided to 10TV by Anthony J. Celebrezze, who is the deputy director of the City of Columbus Department of Building and Zoning Services.
"We were very saddened by the recent pond drowning on the northwest side of Columbus.
The city does in some cases require retention ponds to be installed when apartment complexes are built. This is to prevent flooding from future rain runoff.
In some cases, the ponds may not be required by the city but rather installed for aesthetic reasons by the owners.
For retention ponds, the city requires pond designs that reduce the likelihood of drowning such as a shallow shelf around the pond’s shoreline.
The city continues to evaluate and use best practices from the industry in the design of retention ponds.”
The YMCA of Central Ohio encourages parents to enroll children in swimming classes as early as six months old.
“One of the best things that we can do right now is just continuing to push education, around safety around water right now,” says Chris Tamasovich, who is the association executive director of aquatics.
"In these classes, we’re really looking for those children to not only just explore the water, but we're really working on those fundamentals of how to, you know, at least to float, float on your back,” he said.
Tamasovich said it’s important to teach parents and children communication surrounding the water.
“Let's make sure the child knows, you know, ask permission for it get in the pool or near any water, right, making sure that they know that say this permission and making sure that if there is any type of situation where a child does submerge, what are those important safety skills that a parent needs to know, to make sure that they can save a life successfully?’ shares Tamasovich.
For more information on water safety and how to enroll your children in swim classes, you can go to ymcacolumbus.org.