Tuesday, May 31, 1994

Pool net seen as edge for water safety

Dale howes plays with his 19-month-old son, Blake, in a pool protected by anet covering designed to keep children and pets from falling into the water and drowning.  While pool safetynets have been around for two decades, they are only recently becoming popular in the United States

By ROD SHAW
Tribune Staff Writer

ST. PETERSBURG — Jay Witherell knows firsthand that swimming pools and children can be a deadly combination.

That knowledge didn't come from his work as a firefighter and paramedic in Largo, however. It came from his own back yard In Clearwater, where his first-born son died from a drowning accident in 1986.

Witherell is hopeful that what happened to 2-year-old Daniel wont happen to any of his four other sons.

What has eased his mind is a pool safety net — called Aqua-Safe — that covers the entire pool surface and is designed to prevent children from falling in and drowning.

“I do feel a lot better about It,” Witherell said of the net, which along with a fence helps keep children out of the pool.

“We just don't feel comfortable with them playing In the back yard even with the fence there,” he said. “With the net, there's a much greater sense of security knowing they can't climb a fence and fall into the pool.”

Dale Howes hopes his Aqua-Safe is a big seller in Florida, where swimming pools are as common as hot and humid days. He said he hopes to put a dent in statistics that show Pinellas County leading the nation In drownings for children under 4 years old.

The nets are custom fit to conform to the shape of any pool or spa. They're secured by stainless steel plates placed around the perimeter of the pool. A central tensioning system allows the net to be taken off or put on by only having to deal with one rope.

It takes about three minutes to remove the net and four to six minutes to put it back on, Howes said.

While the Aqua-Safe net Is new to Florida, it's not new elsewhere. The safety device was invented in Zimbabwe some 22 years ago, Howes said, and it's the law in South Africa that all day-care centers with pools must have the safety nets.

About a quarter million of the nets have been Installed, Howes said, and no one ever has drowned where there's one in place.

It's not just children that people who buy the nets are tryIng to protect.  Ten percent of the nets bought — at an average price of $500 to $600 — are to keep pets from falling in the pool, Howes said.

The nets are designed to withstand damage from the sun and can support 300 pounds per strand. The strands are placed 4 inches apart so youngsters’ heads can't fit through them.

Pets and people aren't the only things the nets have caught, however.

 “We've had situations in Australia where cattle and horses have fallen onto the net and the nets still support them,” the Aqua-Safe representative said. “These are true war stories right here, let me tell you.”

Howes, a native of South Africa who has lived in St. Petersburg for five years, said he wouldn't do without a safety net because of his two preschool aged children.

“It just provides the greatest piece of mind,” he said, “knowing that the net is on the pool.”