WRAL Investigates: Mother says missed pool inspection cost her daughter's life
Michelle Rosoff's 17-year-old daughter, Rachel, died in 2016 while working as a lifeguard at a local pool.
Posted — UpdatedThe WRAL Investigates team filed a records request for all pool inspections performed in Wake County in 2023 and received hundreds of pages of documents after several months of waiting. The inspection reports show the most common violation found at local pools was not following guidance regarding emergency phones on-site.
Jessica Sanders, environmental health program manager for Wake County, told WRAL Investigates that basic electrical checks are done by county inspectors while they perform their other checks.
"We do look for potential imminent hazards related to the bonding wire," she said. "We’re not electrical inspectors by any means. We’re just looking for potential hazards that may have happened since last pool season and may require the operator to have an electrical inspection conducted if we see something potentially dangerous ... we may hold up the inspection, it may not pass, if we do see something that needs to be checked out by an electrical inspector."
WRAL Investigates asked why the county does not do more thorough electrical inspections and hire people trained to perform them.
"They never voted on it," she said. "Which I didn’t understand. Because it isn’t bipartisan. It’s safety. I think it’s because people don’t want to pay for pool inspections."
"The stories are different," Watson said. "But the end game is the same. We’re living without our child ... until you’re walking in these shoes, you don’t get it. You absolutely do not get it until you’re walking in these shoes."
WRAL Investigates asked the city of Durham for electrical inspections it has performed on its city-owned pools since 2020. In response, WRAL was told only Long Meadow Pool had been inspected, in 2023, and a number of issues were identified.
According to a spokesperson for the Durham Parks Department, electrical issues, among other concerns prompted that permanent closure:
"To comply with current regulations and ordinance would require bringing all elements into compliance at a replacement estimate in 2022 dollars of up to $8.9M. The pool is far beyond the industry standard and its location in a flood plain will continue to cause these same issues in the future."
WRAL News asked Durham County what kinds of electrical inspections, if any, are performed on pools. A spokesperson for the Health Department said "a visual inspection of the copper bonding wire at the pump motor is performed by our team."
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