Aside from birth defects, drowning is the leading cause of death for kids ages one to four, according to the CDC.
This statistic came as a shock to one local grandmother and aunt.
"It’s sad, right?" said Dawn Dutton of Templeton.
Dutton brought her nephew and granddaughter to the Templeton Community Pool on Friday. While the pool was closed due to a shortage of lifeguards, Dutton says she’s hyper-vigilant when watching them.
“If we're at the beach, I'm in the water with them," the grandmother said. "I'm not one to just sit back and let them go out."
According to the CDC, drowning rates in children younger than four have jumped nearly 30 percent since 2019.
At the Ravine Waterpark, lifeguards are put in realistic scenarios to prevent accidents.
“We drop dummies in the water, so they are actually searching for actual people instead of just an object,” explained Steven Gifford, General Manager of the Ravine Waterpark.
Alive Solutions tested swimsuit colors in both a swimming pool and open water and found brighter neon colors stood out while blues and grays blended in and created a shadow effect.
“Bright colors definitely help in terms of scanning the water," Gifford said. "Neon colors, neon yellow, green, oranges, reds — those are a lot easier for our lifeguards to notice, and we encourage parents to pick those colors for their children when they're swimming at the park."
According to Gifford, the park had 171 rescues in the "toilet bowl" last year due to vertigo. While they’re prepared for accidents, he asks that parents still keep an eye on their kids at all times.
“The biggest phrase that we use here all the time is if your kid is in the water, you should be too," Gifford said.
