2-year-old boy dies after being pulled from pond at apartment complex on Northwest Side
Just under two months after two other children drowned in ponds at Columbus apartment complexes, a 2-year-old boy died Sunday afternoon after being pulled from one of the ponds at an apartment complex on the city's Northwest Side.
Columbus fire crews were called just after 3 p.m. Sunday to the 5400 block of Bermuda Bay Drive on a report that a 2-year-old boy had been pulled by people in the area from one of the ponds at the to the Island Club Apartments complex, located off the west side of Dierker Road, north of Bethel Road.
The boy was rushed to Nationwide Children's Hospital in life-threatening, critical condition, but he died at 4:11 p.m. Sunday. The identity of the boy and additional information about the incident were not made available by Columbus police as of mid-afternoon Tuesday.
Photos from the apartment complex's website and Google satellite photos show four ponds around the apartment complex that do not appear to have any type of fencing around them.
Child drownings at apartment retention ponds: What can be done to prevent deaths?
In September, two children, a 4-year-old and a toddler, died within eight days in apartment complex retention ponds in Columbus that did not have any fences around them.
Theodore Decker:Retention ponds remain magnets for kids, with sometimes deadly results
While Columbus City Code requires fencing and locking gates around public and private pools, there are no such requirements for retention ponds, typically used by apartment complexes for stormwater runoff and aesthetics.
Requiring safeguards such as fences for retention ponds would be costly and impossible without political will, Tony Celebrezze, deputy director of the Columbus Building and Zoning Services Department, told The Dispatch after the September drowning.
"Even if the City Council decided to pass something, it would be very difficult, maybe impossible, to do something retroactively," said Celebrezze, who works with developers and builders on compliance issues.
"It definitely would add significant cost, whether they use a chain link fence or try something to make it look prettier," he said. He said then that he was surprised that insurance companies don't require extra protections or higher premiums for such hazards.
Apartment pond drowning:Child drowns at an apartment complex pond in Columbus' Eastland area
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 2-year-old boy dies in Columbus apartment pond drowning
