Legislature rejects bills to improve backyard swimming safety

Debbie Wasserman Schultz continues her crusade for safer pools.

Putting her firstborn son down for his nap, Christina Martin went to sit with her husband in the next room to watch a movie, unaware it was the last time she would see her little boy alive.

While she was just feet away, her 2-year-old, Gunner Martin, woke up, slipped quietly out his bedroom door and into the family’s backyard swimming pool in Broward County, where he drowned — an increasingly common cause of death for children in Florida.

Her son’s tragic accident in 2016 has been her inspiration to reduce such deaths. Unintentional drowning is the No. 1 cause of death for children ages 1 to 4 in Florida, according to the Department of Health. This year, her efforts in the Legislature gained zero traction.

“It’s a silent killer that nobody is really aware of and is in the backyard of a million and a half people’s pools in the state of Florida,” said Martin, who added that in her own case she never heard her home-alarm sound.

Under current law, passed 25 years ago and championed by then-state Sen. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who now represents Florida’s 25th Congressional District, homeowners with residential pools built or remodeled after 2000 are required to have at least one of five safety features: a barrier surrounding the pool; an in-water alarm; a self-latching device on doors; a pool safety cover; or an alarm on any doors and windows with direct access to pool.

Known as the Preston de Ibern/McKenzie Merriam Residential Swimming Pool Safety Act, the law — named after a young boy who was badly injured and an 18-month-old baby girl who died in separate pool accidents — mandates that one of those safety features must be in place to pass final pool inspection. Failure to meet the requirement is a second-degree misdemeanor, which is punishable with up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

New legislation proposed this year by state Rep. Johanna López, an Orlando Democrat, and state Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, an Orlando Democrat, would have made two key changes: First, the safety requirements would have been required for all homes with pools, including those built before 2000 when the Wasserman law took effect. And second, perhaps most significant — and potentially onerous — it would have required a title company, inspector or underwriter for the mortgage company, to report a violation to law enforcement, presumably when the home is being sold.

That would have meant every private residence in Florida with a pool — there are an estimated 1.5 million, the most of any state — would be subject to those requirements.

The bill’s prospects were bleak. Over the years, similar bills have been introduced, sponsored by Democrats and Republicans, and they died in committee without so much as a hearing or a vote.

That’s exactly what happened this year: The House bill died in a subcommittee without a hearing or vote. The Senate version of the bill was “temporarily postponed” last month and never resurfaced.

Of the 105 drowning-related child deaths in 2024 — an all-time high in Florida — just over half, 56, occurred in residential pools, either that of family, relatives, neighbors, friends or rental homes like Airbnb.

Forty cases reviewed by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, explicitly said the child had gained undetected access to the pool, according to the Department of Children and Families.

Lobbyist David Ramba, who opposed passage of the same legislation last year, representing Bradenton Beach, Daytona Beach, Longboat Key and the Building Officials Association of Florida, said it would be better to have measures to increase residential pool safety written into the Florida Building Code, not state law.

“They (state lawmakers) want to name it after somebody who tragically passed away,” he said. “Some people just like to see it in statute.”

But López, who also sponsored the bill last year, called passing it a no-brainer and said it’s a nonpartisan issue.

“This is not about party affiliation,” López said. “This is about an issue and a challenge that we’re facing in the state of Florida.”

Water safety advocate Alan Korn, who advises a pool company about safety measures, said requiring a house with a pool to have safety measures should be tied to the sale of the home, adding that it’s no different than a home inspection.

“When you sell your home, you may have to make sure you have smoke alarms in it. … Lots of municipalities have carbon monoxide detector use laws,” said Korn, the former Executive Director and General Counsel of the advocacy group “Safe Kids USA.”

“It’s to take advantage for public safety purposes the transaction of a sale, so that when you sell a home, there’s someone who takes a look at the pool and make sure it has the safety devices that are there to prevent, primarily, little children from gaining unfettered access to a pool,” he said.

Christina Martin said she plans to keep advocating for increased home pool safety requirements.

Her foundation, the Gunner Martin Foundation, advocates for safe swimming practices, and drew national attention in 2022 when Cleveland Browns long snapper Charley Hughlett wore cleats with the words “The Gunner Martin Foundation” painted on, in honor of the family for the NFL’s #mycausemycleats week.

“If we don’t get it done this year, we’re going to push it next year, and if it doesn’t get done next year, we’ll be there the next year,” Martin said. “We need it more than anything.”

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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at [email protected]. You can donate to support our students here.