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The death of a child in a Tauranga fountain has sparked regrets for a mother whose daughter almost met the same fate.
“I really wish I’d told the council,” said the woman, who spoke to Stuff on the condition of anonymity.
“It could have been [my daughter].”
Police were called to reports of a drowning incident at Memorial Park about 9.50am on Sunday, a spokesperson said.
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* Child who drowned at Tauranga park was in the fountain
* Child drowns at Tauranga’s Memorial Park
The child was found unresponsive but could not be revived with CPR.
But it was back on January 26 in 2020 – her daughter’s third birthday – when the woman’s child was pulled from the same fountain.
The woman had been cooking on the BBQ when her husband carried over their dripping wet little girl, coughing up water and crying.
The three-year-old had been with her grandma and wanted to swim – along with the 20 or 30 other children already in the fountain.
The girl’s dad went over to talk to his mum about 20 minutes later, and saw a shape resembling his daughter underwater in the fountain.
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Police said CPR was started, but the child was unable to be revived. Their death would be referred to the Coroner.
She’d coughed up the water she swallowed, but was okay.
It was when they got home the woman realised her daughter hadn’t just fallen – she’d nearly drowned.
“She started crying and said she never wanted to go swimming again.”
The little girl described wanting to breathe, but not being able to. She said it’d hurt. She didn’t understand she’d felt like she was going to die, her mum said. But she mentioned it frequently afterwards.
The woman went over to look at the fountain after the incident, and saw it had a steep drop in the middle.
“Kind of like a trench,” she said.
While investigating, she slipped herself, and had a hard time regaining her footing on the slippery surface.
Remembering back, she thought the water reached above her knee – and she is 175cm tall.
She said if it was hard for her, imagine what it was like “for a small child who can’t get their footing and falling face first.”
The woman said she was upset, and wanted to report it to the council – but talked herself out of it.
They were newcomers to the area, and a family that were generally quite clumsy. She thought maybe grandma wasn’t paying enough attention, and it was an isolated incident.
That was until she heard of the drowning at Memorial Park on Sunday.
She didn’t know the age of the child or the circumstances of the drowning, but said as soon as she heard it’d happened at Memorial Park – she “knew in her heart” it was the fountain.
Christel Yardley/Stuff
A Tauranga City Council spokesperson would not answer questions about the depth of the fountain, previous safety analysis, or about prior incidents.
The woman had seen other people commenting on social media about similar near drownings and wondered that the child might be alive if they’d all reported the dangerous swimming spot.
“I feel so sorry for them. I wish this didn’t happen.”
She admitted that as parents they should have investigated the fountain more before their child got in, but didn’t think anything of it at the time.
“There were so many kids, we just thought it was a swimming fountain. I grew up swimming in fountains.
“I had no idea there was a huge slope.”
The woman suggested the council install a grate inside the fountain to stop children reaching the drop.
It didn’t matter if you put up signs, people would swim in there anyway, she said.
“It’s such a cool fountain, they need a way to level it.”
Tauranga City Council said they had since emptied the fountain and a temporary fence was installed until further notice.
A spokesperson would not answer questions about the depth of the fountain, previous safety analysis, or about prior incidents.
They said the council would undertake a review of the safety of the fountain following the incident.
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