New Ad Aims To Prevent Child Drownings

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- With summer around the corner, families will soon be heading to the pool.

A new PSA, with a Minnesota connection, is hoping to prevent child drownings all over the country.

The 30-second video, called "No One Is Watching," shows a young girl gasping for breath in the water as adults, who don't notice, stand around the pool.

According to the Abbey's Hope "Water Watchdog" program, nearly 90 percent of drownings occur with adults nearby.

"It isn't like the movies," Abbey's Hope executive director Alan Korn said. "It is silent. The child goes under and that's the last you hear of them."

Abbey's Hope started as an organization to promote maintaining safe pools after the Taylor family, from Edina, suffered their own tragedy at a pool in the summer of 2007.

Abigail Taylor, 6, sat on top of an open drain at a country club wading pool in St. Louis Park. The suction ripped out much of her small intestine. She died nine months later.

"It changed our lives forever," said Scott Taylor, Abigail's father.

The Taylors started Abbey's Hope, which would later transition into a bigger campaign to promote safe supervision of children when they are in the water.

Abbey's Hope asks parents to take turns as "Water Watchdogs," wearing a tag necklace when they are the designated pool supervisor.

The organization also asks parents to avoid alcohol and distractions, like talking the phone or texting, if they are the watcher.

Scott says he does not want any other parent to go through the pain of losing a child.

"We took that as our mission for the rest of our lives is to do whatever we can to make sure that … no other family has to go through what we've gone through," Scott said.

The PSA will begin airing Tuesday, but you can watch it here.

Every year, 830 children between the ages of 1 to 14 die from drowning.