I feel like this is more of a supervisor error than it is the pool manufacturer. I have a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old that love water and are good swimmers for their ages, but I still stay vigilant when they are around water. I am not aware of the circumstances other than what is printed in this article. Maybe there is more to the story, but I don't think that I would have pursued it as they did. God hope I'm never in their situation and have to make that call. I do feel very sorry for the parents.

If you open the link you can see an image of the pool the vinyl strip that she stepped on.

Ol dad

https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/parents-awarded-25m-for-childs-drowning-in-warren-county/



WARREN COUNTY, Mo. – The parents of a toddler who drowned in an above-ground pool almost six years ago in Warren County were given $25 million Friday in a lawsuit against the company who manufactured the pool, according to court records.

The Eastern District of Missouri presented the money to Kyle and Annaleah Justice, who were the parents of a 2-year-old girl when she drowned in a Bestway above-ground pool at her grandparents house.

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Photo courtesy of the Eastern District of Missouri
Court documents place blame on Bestway’s design of the pool and Rural King in the county for their advertisement of it.

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On Aug. 3, 2019, the 2-year-old girl approached the pool. The ladder was 11 feet away from the pool to prevent her from being able to get in, however, there was a nylon strap just over a foot above the ground that went around the pool. Records state that she used that nylon strap to step on and gain access to the pool, as photos also displayed muddy footprints of a small child above the strap.

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“Bestway designed the pool in the manner that created a nylon ledge barely one foot off the ground to save the few dollars or cents per unit it would have taken the render the pool reasonably safe. In so doing, Bestway showed complete indifference to or conscious disregard for the safety of others and engaged in conduct that was so egregious that it was tantamount to intentional wrongdoing because the natural and probable consequence of the conduct is death of a toddler by drowning,” the lawsuit said.

Additionally, it said that Rural King sold and advertised the pool despite their knowledge of the defect.


Bestway and Rural King were accused of several counts of a wrongful death.

“(Friday’s) verdict delivers justice by holding Bestway USA accountable for the wrongful death of a bright and beloved two-year-old. The jury’s decision affirms that Bestway’s defective nylon strap directly led to this heartbreaking tragedy. While no verdict can undo their loss, we are honored to have stood by the Justice family and hope this brings them some closure and drives safer design to prevent future harm,” attorney for the Justice family Jake Plattenberger said.

I was going to say if it was the first death it sounds like an unforseen accident, but if there were several deaths attributed to this design flaw I would say it's definitely neglectful not to recall or issue a fix of some kind.

Tragic accidents happen. My mother was at a party where a little kid fell in a pool and drowned. Dozens of people around, and nobody saw him fall in. Nobody noticed until it was too late. Unsupervised backyard pools and little kids that can't swim are a bad mix.

personally I don't think I would have sewed , I would have figured I set it up , I was supposed to be watching them , it was enough my fault that I wouldn't have put that much blame on someone else.

I think in my jurisdiction pools have to have a 4 foot fence around them

this is not to say everyone does , the reason my yard is fenced all the way around is that in the early 2000s when those pools were the hot new thing at the box stores everyone around me had one , maybe one had a fence and my son was a bit of a runner , snuck out of my parents one time in the middle of the night at about 3 he could open doors and start cars
my mom made my dad install little squealing alarms at the top of the doors , they were so high she had to get her step stool to arm or disarm them if he wasn't around.

he gave his mother nightmares so bad so that 2200 dollars later and a weeks worth of my time 4 feet of chain link with locks on the gates completely enclosing front and back door and yard the side with no doors the utilities enter on is the only thing not fenced

it is great for dogs and it let her sleep at night

yes he drove the mini van into the garage door at about 3 years old , he was a fast learner if he had seen you do it , he had enough of an idea to see how it was done and do it.
thankfully there was enough of a pile of snow that he couldn't get into the road , I was gone for like two minutes and he was strapped into his car seat I just needed to runback in the house for something

I dug a large pond in my front yard, when I had kids I filled the whole pond with wood chips. Tragic accident, grandparents at fault.

Don’t agree, people need to be responsible for their own actions. It’s a tragic accident imo.

This lawsuit happened for one reason, money. Some low life attorney ambulance chaser saw dollar signs. I hope AI replaces em all.

x2

Sounds like parents grandparents weren't responsible in watching their rug rat

Parents responsibility

A sad situation for sure. Who owned the pool? Was it the little girl's parents? I think the compensation seems quite high, but then it's very hard to place a value on a human life, especially a child.

I remember a situation years ago where a man dug two holes for some clotheslines he was putting in in his yard. That night a heavy rain filled both holes with water. Early the next morning his neighbor's young toddler wandered into his yard and fell head first into one of the holes, was unable to get out and drowned. The neighbor sued and was awarded a pretty good amount which I don't recall since it was a long time ago. The court felt that, even though it was on the neighbor's property, he was negligent for not covering the holes.

No!!!!!

Total BS

You can't supervise your 2yo so you dig up a reason to sue and put the blame on someone else'

Probably helps them to sleep better by putting the blame on someone else

Exactly, I figured it's easier to live with putting the blame on someone else's. But having had my son get killed when a guy ran a red light and t boned us both my wife and I at different times tried to put the blame on ourselves. My wife because she was driving and didn't see the truck coming and avoid it and I blamed myself because it's my job to keep the kids safe and I failed. Both were irrational but it's amazing what your mind will do.

So I guess in reality there is no way of knowing what the parents are thinking and feeling other than their kid is dead and they just got a pile of money

No I don't think it's a good suit.

There's a myriad of ways an unsupervised two year old could get killed. Parents should know this. The parents should have been held at fault. The parents should suffer terrible guilt, for their lack of care, the rest of their lives. The parents should most definitely not been enriched for being bad parents.

Keith

Was it awarded per a judge or jury?

I wasn't there and I don't know all the details so any reply I give is just based on speculation and that's good for nothing.

Fault of the caretaker at the time. Could have just as easily walked out in front of a car unsupervised.