June 24, 2020

"It’s going around that they were electrocuted. The fact that they had an electrician’s truck show up shortly thereafter — I mean, it wouldn’t make sense that three people just drowned right away like that, with an adult there, too."

Said the neighbor, quoted in "NJ family found dead in backyard pool died from drowning" (NY Post).

30 comments:

lgv said...

Wow. Drowned in an above ground pool. I knew a fellow scuba diving instructor who drowned in and indoor pool during a class. Everyone should learn how to float.

Drago said...

Were they acquaintances of the Clintons?

Nichevo said...

So...this is justification for your use of the passive in describing the toppling of the Madison statues? "Them hogs!"?


Then explain why the body was found

by the wash pot,

one arm in the flames,

the sleeve and hand smouldering.


Them hogs!

They may have moved the body.


Hogs, indeed!


Mr Goudy, do you have

any more questions?


None that I'll get a straight answer to.

I'm finished with him.

Kelly said...

Probably the kid was drowning, the mother who jumped in couldn’t swim well and began drowning, the older man jumped in to help them both and was pulled under by the female adult, or vice versa.

Wince said...

So I open the door
It's the 'friend' that I'd left in the hallway
Please sit down
A candle lit a shadow on a wall near the bed

You know I hate to ask
But, are 'friends' electric?
Mine's broke down
And now I've no one to love

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Sad
will these be counted as Covid deaths?

MadisonMan said...

Is this a metaphor? The drowning victims were Wisconsin Liberals who are realizing that their votes for Democrats have not prevented statue-toppling?

gspencer said...

Not electricity. Newer reports have the little girl panicking as she drifted into deeper water, the panic b/c she couldn't swim. Mother and Gramps, after their first act of stupidity of allowing a 6 y/o non-swimmer to go into the pool in the first place, jump in to help the little girl, even though neither one of them knew how to swim.

Terry di Tufo said...

Your interests can be surprising. If a child is drowning in deep water and the body is near the bottom of the pool, adults might well drown in trying to save the child. I had friends whose 6 year old fell into a 10 foot diving area and the mother was not a strong enough swimmer to get deep enough to pull her child out. Fortunately the mother's helper was a strong swimmer and was able to dive deep enough to get hold of the child.

Drago said...

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM:"Sad will these be counted as Covid deaths?"

Yes. Twice each in fact.

Gotta bump those numbers up for November.

Tomcc said...

Very sad event. Some weird details:
"...purchased for $451,000..." Relevance, your honor.

Ann Althouse said...

How deep is an above ground pool? Wouldn't an adult be above-water standing? Did they all pull each other under?

Todd said...

gspencer said...
Not electricity. Newer reports have the little girl panicking as she drifted into deeper water, the panic b/c she couldn't swim. Mother and Gramps, after their first act of stupidity of allowing a 6 y/o non-swimmer to go into the pool in the first place, jump in to help the little girl, even though neither one of them knew how to swim.

6/24/20, 11:45 AM


What? So they have a pool but none of the people involved could swim?

Needless tragedy.

So, who gets sued? Pool manufacturer? HOA? Pool installer?

wildswan said...

The parents probably told the kid to stay out till they could all learn to swim and - surprise - she sneaked off and went in. Then they tried to save her. When I was growing up near DC there were tragic drownings every summer at places on the Potomac Falls at Carderock in places where the water was two inches deep but moving over the fall rocks with the power of water from a firehose. The Potomac was known by residents to be beautiful but powerful and treacherous. Visitors and newbies would walk on the rocks and get swept off their feet and others would try to save them. They never came up till they were far down the river past DC.

Guimo said...

Electrocution.

Biff said...

Ann Althouse said..."How deep is an above ground pool? Wouldn't an adult be above-water standing? Did they all pull each other under?"

One of the local NJ newspapers mentioned that it was a "four foot pool." It did seem a little odd to me.

That said, I can imagine scenarios where disaster can happen if no one involved is a good swimmer, the bottom of the pool is slippery due to poor maintenance, and someone panics. A single panicked swimmer can be extremely dangerous, even to a trained rescuer.

lgv said...

Ann Althouse said...
How deep is an above ground pool? Wouldn't an adult be above-water standing? Did they all pull each other under?


Walls are 48-54", but you do overlap liners and dig deeper inside the walls of the pool and create greater depth. The amount of depth is dependent on the size of the original pool.

I'd guess they could have gone 6-7', which is enough to drown in for a non-swimmer who panics. They should have been able to bounce, but panic creates strange reactions.

LCB said...

How deep is an above ground pool? Wouldn't an adult be above-water standing? Did they all pull each other under?

I've never seen one deeper than about 4 feet. The liners are pretty depth specific. If you go too deep the liner would tear and leak. Will be interesting if others have more facts.

LCB said...

I found this: Typical above ground pool depths are 48 or 52 inches deep. Above-ground pools require a level surface and access to electricity and water.

LCB said...

And this: Want to practice snorkeling, or host more challenging retrieval games? Consider digging a deep end and pairing it with a suitable liner! An exciting option available for most sizes is the 7' expandable Lomart liners. These overlap liners are true expandable liners made with a higher ratio of plasticizers that will stretch into the deeper section, or hopper, that you have excavated. This offers the greatest amount of flexibility, as you can utilize this liner in variable depths and configurations. When installed properly you can produce a smooth floor to the pool with minimal wrinkling.

Ryan said...

There are many horrible videos of people from (and in) India drowning in ponds and rivers. You can watch them online. I suspect that swimming lessons are not widespread over there. When they moved here, they did not know how to swim but thought they would take a dip.

Yancey Ward said...

I never seen an above ground pool deeper than 5 feet. However, I think Kelly's hypothesis is likely to be correct- the child began to drown and the two adults drown each other in their panic. It can happen even if you can actually stand with your head above water- I have literally seen it happen before, though it didn't end in a fatality. Honestly, if I saw a stranger adult drowning, I would definitely be hesitent to try to save them because of the risk they would pull me under, and I am a strong swimmer. The panic of a drowning person is a remarkably dangerous thing- they will try to treat another person as a flotation device.

Ann Althouse said...

"I'd guess they could have gone 6-7', which is enough to drown in for a non-swimmer who panics. They should have been able to bounce, but panic creates strange reactions."

You could walk across the bottom and quickly get to the edge where you could reach far above your head with your arms.

I assume they were all panicking.

Howard said...

Swimming is the ultimate White Privilege.

Readering said...

Everyone should be taught to swim as a child.

BUMBLE BEE said...

When I certified as a lifeguard, the instructer said the most common thing a drowning person does is to litterally "climb" the bouyant one, the rescuer. We concentrated heavily on escape technique from "panicked" swimmers. The summation was to throw something to the victim to grab onto from safe distance while trying to talk them down. Avoid a tussle with the drowning cause there'd be two drowned.

Inga said...

How terribly sad. I belong to a grief support group that is for people who had family/ friends who have drowned. Almost everyday in the warmer months a person who has lost a child to drowning joins the group, less often are loved ones of the teenagers and adults who have drowned.

bagoh20 said...

Some "expert" on TV probably told them you can breath underwater. My guess would be from the WHO, or the CDC. Of course today they announced that you cannot, in fact, breath under water, unless you wear a mask, and stay 6 ft away from others.

Nichevo said...


Howard said...
Swimming is the ultimate White Privilege.

6/24/20, 1:51 PM


Sincerely curious, Howard: what impelled you to write that? What did you have to gain, or to cause others to lose, by it?

Johnula said...

Reading is hard. From the article:

"Law enforcement sources said the pool varied in depth, with a deep end or a section in the ­middle that was several feet."