Child drownings in Phoenix area on pace for ‘horrific’ year

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Drowning prevention advocates are warning that the number of child drownings in the Phoenix area is on pace to reach record or near-record levels.

“This trend will be a horrific year if it goes on the way that it has this last month,” said Lori Stauffer, vice president of the Drowning Prevention Coalition of Arizona and works for Scottsdale Fire Department.

Leading into the holiday weekend, first responders reported 51 water-related incidents in 2024, according to Children’s Safety Zone.

Twenty-two of those incidents resulted in deaths. Nine of the drownings were young children and 13 were adults.

“The last three weeks, every single day there seems to be a drowning page that goes out,” said Stauffer.

In Arizona, drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 4.

“It’ll be three years for us June 12 of this year since we lost Odin. And I can honestly say it does not get any easier. In fact, quite the opposite, it’s gotten more difficult for us,” said Stacey McRae, who now shares her son’s story in hopes it will save other children and families.

She did not have a pool fence, but had given her children swim lessons.

“We thought we were doing best for our child by having them in swim lessons, by doing private lessons in our backyard pool, by enrolling them in survival lessons at a swim school, by actively supervising them. We thought those things were going to protect our child,” said McRae.

But the evening Odin drowned, McRae and her husband were out to dinner. A family member was watching the kids and fell asleep. Odin and his twin snuck out to the pool. The twin made it out of the pool. Odin did not.

McRae now advocates for layers of protection around pools.

“No one layer should be your sense of security when it comes to water safety,” said McRae.

Water safety advocates recommend the following layers of protection:

• A pool fence, which is at least 5 feet tall and has a self-closing gate.
• Always supervise children around the pool. That means being at the pool at all times the children are in or around the water.
• Get your children swim lessons or water survival education as early as possible.
• If your children can’t swim, have them wear a Coast Guard-approved life vest when they’re near the water.
• Learn CPR for water rescues.

“You need to have multiple layers in place. Because when one fails, you have those other four. This can happen to anyone. This happens to good parents, good families, vigilant parents,” said McRae.

Overall, the number of children drowning in Arizona has dropped slightly from 1995, when there were 30, to 2022, when there were 25, even though the state’s population has nearly doubled in that time frame.

“That’s the good news. But we’re still losing far too many people to something that is preventable,” said Stauffer.

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