A Coroner has urged an overhaul of the ACT's "inadequate" and "confusing" pool fencing laws following the drowning death of a toddler in a backyard swimming pool in Canberra's north.
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The ACT Coroner's Court has delivered its findings in the case of River Arama Parry who died, aged 21 months, after he was pulled from an unfenced pool in Fisher on December 30, 2015.
River was at a relative's home when his family members, each thinking he was with someone else, noticed he was missing and searched the house and backyard.
The toddler was scooped from the bottom of the murky in-ground pool. A relative and, later, paramedics tried to resuscitate him.
He was rushed to Canberra Hospital but could not be revived.
Coroner Beth Campbell found a lack of supervision was a key factor in the boy's drowning, but said the tragedy highlighted broader public safety concerns stemming from the ACT's pool fencing laws, which she described as inadequate and confusing.
She noted in her findings the pool River drowned in, which was built in 1986, complied with pool fencing legislation, despite the fact it was unfenced, easily accessed from the house's back door and lacked child locks or self-closing mechanisms.
"As [the pool] had been installed decades ago it was not required to comply with any changes and improvements in pool fencing and barrier standards which had subsequently been introduced," she said.
"The ACT law does not require that historically and lawfully erected pools must be retrofitted with pool barriers or that pool barriers must be upgraded or enhanced as requirements for newly constructed pools are strengthened."
Ms Campbell said all ACT pools should be brought up to standard as a priority and requirements for pools to comply with laws should apply from a fixed point in time, rather than be triggered only when a property was leased or sold.
She made recommendations for urgent reforms to require all existing backyard pools, irrespective of when they were constructed or installed, comply with the latest version of the building code.
Ms Campbell called for further changes to the legislation to provide methods for ensuring compliance, noting regulation measures adopted in other jurisdictions included swimming pool registers and inspection regimes.
Her findings also included a recommendation for a public awareness campaign on the importance of supervising children near backyard pools, and to highlight the importance of life-saving skills, in the lead-up to summer.
The Coroner expressed her sympathy to River's family for "the tragic loss of a much loved little boy".
"Although nothing done in the inquest process will bring River back, or alter the pain his loss has caused his family, a change to the ACT legislative framework to improve ACT pool fencing requirements would be a significant legacy arising from this tragedy."
"We will never know whether River would still have entered the pool had the ... pool been surrounded by pool fencing and barriers which were compliant with the standards in force at the time of his death.
"But had the ... pool had a child-resistant pool barrier, River may well have been slowed down in his path to the pool sufficiently so that he might have been discovered, or he may have been discouraged in his efforts to reach the pool and wandered away."
An ACT government spokesman said the planning directorate was devising options for cabinet to consider which balanced the need to bring pools up to the current standard with the cost to home owners.
A public education campaign on pool safety will begin in the ACT next month.
"This is a terrible tragedy and our thoughts are with River's family at this difficult time," the spokesman said.
"We must all do everything we can to monitor children around pools and teach them to be safe around water.
"This is a community responsibility and even the latest fencing standards don't replace proper supervision."
Three of the 32 drowning deaths recorded in the ACT in the past 16 years, not including River, were in a backyard pool.