'Drownings can happen in a second': Boy, 7, dies in fourth Long Island swimming pool drowning this week

EAST MEADOW, N.Y. (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — A seven-year-old boy drowned on Long Island on the Fourth of July, marking the fourth person to die in backyard swimming pool incidents this week.

Nassau County Police responded to a residence on Second Avenue in East Meadow at about 3:55 p.m. on Thursday and found the seven-year-old, who was not breathing from an apparent drowning incident.

The child had already been removed from the pool and CPR was being administered when police arrived. He was transported to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.

It happened one day after three drowning deaths in Suffolk County. A two-year-old child died in a drowning incident in Islandia on Wednesday; 79-year-old John Vormbaum drowned in an East Northport swimming pool on Thursday and 29-year-old Kenneth Murphy, of Brooklyn, died while swimming in a backyard pool in Wyandanch early Friday morning.

The number of drownings is swelling as the northeast reaches the peak of summer, and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman reminded caretakers to be vigilant when letting children swim.

“Never leave children in a pool unattended,” Blakeman said. “If someone is going to watch the kid, that person has to understand that that means you’re there the whole time, you’re not on your cellphone, you’re not on your iPad, you’re watching the children, because drownings can happen in a second.”

Alarms around and inside backyard pools, locks on pool gates and teaching children from a young age how to swim and float are important ways to mitigate accidents, according to Blakeman.

“Pools are very inviting to kids, they want to jump in, and some children don’t know how to swim,” he said.

More than 150 people drown each year in New York State, according to the Department of Health. Drowning is the fourth leading cause of death for children ages 1-4, and seventh leading cause of death in children 5-14, in the state.

A report from the NYSDOH shows that 104 state residents died from drowning in 2019, 126 in 2018 and 111 in 2017, and these figures only factor in drownings at public swimming pools and bathing beaches.