New Year Wake-Up Call

Along with its celebrations and resolutions, the arrival of the new year brought with it a reminder of some familiar and entirely preventable tragedies. After an early wake-up call, let’s resolve to do better in these areas.

One of the persistent problems of the outdoor lifestyle of Orange County is that children are drowning in swimming pools. New Year’s Day brought no respite from this tragic kind of accident that can and should be avoided. A 20-month-old toddler drowned after he apparently found his way into the backyard of his grandparents’ home in Yorba Linda and fell into the pool. It was a reminder of how quickly a drowning can happen that family members told police the child had been missing for about five minutes.

Last year, there were 35 incidents of drownings or near drownings in the county, which resulted in 12 fatalities. The work of the Fire Authority and Children’s Hospital of Orange County needs to be continued and deserves support. The two last September outlined a jointly sponsored Water Watcher program, which encourages people to designate an adult who knows CPR to watch over children in or near a pool. They also are trying to bring together people from the swimming pool industry to look at other strategies.

For those wishing to know more about childhood drowning prevention, call the Orange County Fire Authority’s community relations and education section at (714) 744-0496.

Another familiar problem turned up early on New Year’s Day in La Palma. A boy on his way home from church was killed when a pickup truck ran a red light and broadsided the vehicle he was in. The accident, which police termed alcohol-related, was similar to a crash in Fullerton only days earlier. Then, a 23-year-old woman was killed when a suspected drunk driver, who police said had three earlier drunk driving convictions, ran a red light in Fullerton.

Some encouraging news was that drunk driving arrests dropped during the holiday season compared with recent years. However, the drunk driving accident and the toddler death show that, in some ways, new years bring more of the same. With all that has been said and written about these problems, the need for public education continues.