{"id":334120,"date":"2010-02-18T01:02:38","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T06:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gordonmoyes.com\/2010\/02\/18\/coroners-findings-reveals-avoidable-death-of-a-young-life\/"},"modified":"2010-02-18T01:02:38","modified_gmt":"2010-02-18T06:02:38","slug":"coroner%e2%80%99s-findings-reveals-avoidable-death-of-a-young-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/334120","title":{"rendered":"Coroner\u2019s findings reveals avoidable death of a young life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yesterday, the New South Wales coroner recommended major changes to the spa building industry after the “avoidable” drowning of an 11-year old girl. Shannon Rankin died when she was sucked underwater in a spa in the newly built Sevan Apartments block at Forster on the NSW<\/span> mid-north coast in 2006.<\/p>\n

According to Deputy State Coroner, Paul MacMahon, the cause of Shannon’s death was drowning occurring after she became entrapped on the cover of the main drain of the spa pool. Shannon became trapped because of the significant pressure that resulted from a blockage in the main drains, which occurred during “the process of the pebble-creting of the wall and floor of the spa during its construction”.<\/p>\n

The Deputy State Coroner stated that the spa was dangerous because it had no emergency stop switch and the drain on the bottom was blocked. He said, “Her death was a tragedy for her family and friends, a tragedy magnified by the fact that it was avoidable”.<\/p>\n

Mr David Rankin, Shannon’s father, said that his daughter had become trapped at the bottom of the spa and had been sucked down by 350 kilograms of pressure, which was so strong that three grown men were unable to free her before she drowned.<\/p>\n

The NSW <\/span>Deputy Coroner delivered several key recommendations during the inquest which include:<\/p>\n

1. That action is taken to prohibit the inclusion of an active main filter drain in the floor of spa pools in future constructions, and<\/p>\n

2. That media action be taken to inform the public as to the potential dangers associated with active main filter drains in the floor of spa pools.<\/p>\n

3. That action is taken to require the certification of pools and spa’s as being in compliance with statutory and other building requirements as well as being safe for proposed use by an appropriately qualified and independent expert prior to the pool or spa being handed over for use by occupants of the property on which the pool or spa is constructed.<\/p>\n

4. That action be taken to ensure that where a pool and\/or spa forms part of a property development an occupation certificate not be issued by the relevant Principal Certifying Authority unless and until that Authority has satisfied himself or herself that the pool and or spa has been constructed in accordance with relevant statutory and other building requirements and is safe for proposed use.<\/p>\n

According to Richard Flankin, spokesman for Royal Life Saving Australia, older spas and ones imported from China and sold in Australia without passing through safety checks continue to pose a serious risk, and unless changes to the laws were retroactive, they would be ineffective in improving safety in older spa pools. Mr Franklin said the recommendation changes were a “good first step” but repeated an earlier call by the organisation for mandatory kill switches on spa pools.<\/p>\n

Rob Kruber, the operations manager for manufacturer Spa Industries, said the law needed to address the sale of Chinese imports that did not meet Australian standards. Spa pools built since 1993 are required to have two suction outlets at least one metre apart so that if one becomes blocked, pressure is released at the other suction. Mr Kruber said that some retailers were selling imported spas that contained more than one suction outlet but had not passed “entrapment” tests.<\/p>\n

We encourage homeowners to undertake regular safety checks on their spas and swimming pools by a licensed inspector. After this preventable death that took such a young life, it is time for the Minister for Fair Trading to implement the recommendations made by the NSW <\/span>Coroner.<\/p>\n

References: Magistrate Paul MacMahon, Inquest touching the death of Shannon Rankin, NSW <\/span>State Coroner’s Court, 16\/02\/10; Melissa Singer, Drain ban a start but law must deal with old spas, SMH<\/span>, 18\/02\/10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, the New South Wales coroner recommended major changes to the spa building industry after the “avoidable” drowning of an 11-year old girl. Shannon Rankin died when she was sucked underwater in a spa in the newly built Sevan Apartments block at Forster on the NSW mid-north coast in 2006. According to Deputy State Coroner, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-334120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}