Small boy found dead in pool

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33959, 27 September 1975, Page 16

Small boy found dead in pool

r.V.Z Press Association) AUCKLAND, Sept. 26.

A three-year-old Glenfield boy was found dead, floating in a nearby swimming pool, about three hours after he was reported missing — the fourth such fatality in the last two weeks. He was

Shane Tuhoro, of Sunhaven Road, Glenfield.

A Takapuna police spokesman said that the child had been noticed missing by his mother about noon. The police had been called, but it was not until 3 p.m. that a constable searched a small park nearby and spotted the body of the boy floating face down in an uncovered, unfenced swimming pool.

Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and cardiac massage were attempted without success.

“This just can’t go on happening,” said Mrs J. A. Gallagher, the swimming pool safety campaigner, who wants all suburban swimming pools fenced or protected to stop infant fatalities. The death was the fourth infant swimming-pool death since a 23-month-old boy was found dead under the cover of an Otara swimming pool on September 14. A 16-month-old boy drowned in a neighbour’s goldfish pond in Tauranga on September 17, and a 17-month-old Paeroa boy was found dead in a neighbour’s swimming pool on September 18.

“People must realise that they can be affected,” Mrs Gallagher said. “It can happen to them, and it is now . . . We must find a way to stop these kiddies dying.”

The latest death has made her more determined to renew her efforts to enforce some form of protection round swimming pools.