Toddler cheats death in neighbour's swimming pool

11.45am

A toddler cheated death after climbing over a Havelock North neighbour's illegal swimming pool fence apparently to retrieve a ball.

The 2-1/2-year-old boy was found unconscious at the bottom of the pool and plucked from the water moments after neighbours arrived home from shopping on Friday.

Hastings District Council officers said they suspected horizontal boards on the boundary fence acted as a ladder for the boy to scale the 1.8 metre-high fence to gain access to the adjacent pool.

The pool fence did not meet national fencing standards.

Officers found nine faults, including no self-closing gate, during an inspection of the property after the near-drowning.

"The mother had been inside for a few minutes when she heard a loud splash and immediately ran outside to find her son," council community safety manager Malcolm Hart said.

"She frantically weighed up the options on how to get into the next door neighbour's property quickly."

"It was at that exact moment that the neighbours thankfully arrived home from shopping.

The husband immediately dived into the water and saved the little boy who was submerged at the bottom of the pool."

The boy did not need resuscitation, but was supervised for four hours after water was found in his right lung when taken to Hawke's Bay Hospital in Hastings.

The owners, who twice failed to return self-assessment questionnaires on the safety of their pool fencing, have emptied the pool and vowed to remove the pool.

- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY