Pool operator and education department fined $180,000 over camp drowning

Cooper, a Merrivale Primary School student, drowned at the Belfast Aquatics Community Pool and Fitness Centre on 21 May 2021. The Warrnambool County Court fined Port Fairy Community Pool Management Group Inc $80,000 and the Department of Education $100,000. Both had pleaded guilty to one charge each of failing to ensure people other than employees were not exposed to health and safety risks.

The court heard that department policy required schools to assess and consider students’ swimming competency before planning water-based activities. Merrivale students had not been assessed since the end of 2019. Before the camp, Cooper’s mother identified him on a form as a beginner swimmer with little or no experience, including in shallow water. The school did not give the pool that form or any information about the children’s swimming abilities.

The school booked an inflatable obstacle course positioned in the pool’s deep section, where the water was 1.2 to 1.35 metres deep. When the 28 students arrived, the pool’s manager and lifeguard asked them to raise their hands if they had taken swimming lessons. Children who indicated they could swim were allowed onto the course, while the others were directed to the shallow section.

The manager and another lifeguard initially supervised from the start and side of the course, with teachers supervising the remaining students. Several children, including Cooper, struggled immediately after completing the course, prompting the manager to enter the water to help. Over the next half-hour, the manager determined that only six children were strong enough swimmers to use it and assisted or directed at least 12 others over the dividing wall into the shallow section.

Later, a member of the public swimming in the deep section saw Cooper floating underwater. She called for help and, with the manager’s assistance, brought him to the pool deck. The manager performed CPR but could not revive him.

The court heard that the pool operator could reasonably practicably have reduced the drowning risk by testing the children’s swimming abilities. It also failed to give lifeguards information and instruction on procedures covering how the inflatable course should be used, who could use it and how it should be supervised. The department could reasonably practicably have reduced the risk to less experienced swimmers by giving the pool information about their abilities before they entered the water.

WorkSafe Executive Director Health and Safety Narelle Beer said there was no excuse for a casual approach to the known risk of children drowning in public pools. “It's hard to comprehend how young children could be allowed to use an obstacle course at the deep end of a pool without first taking real steps to objectively assess their swimming abilities,” Dr Beer said.

Dr Beer said families trusted education providers to care for their children and that schools needed to use information supplied by parents to help keep children safe, rather than simply collecting it on a form. She expressed sympathy for Cooper’s family and loved ones.

How Blue Safe can help: Our free WHS self-check can help you review your business’s approach to health and safety duties and identify areas that may need closer attention. Take the free WHS self-check