Sen. Charles Schumer is calling for new efforts to prevent child drownings.
The Democratic senator released a new report that says toddler drownings are on the rise. According to the findings, young boys are drowning at more than twice the rate of girls.
Schumer is calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to investigate the main causes of drowning in children 4 years old and younger, and he says the agency should develop community-based outreach campaign involving education and prevention.
Schumer pointed to
last summer's tragic deaths in Melville, where 3-year-old twin boys drowned in their backyard pool. He says hundreds of water tragedies happen in New York.
According to Sen. Schumer, drowning is one of the leading causes of death for children under age 5, and three children drown every day in the U.S.
Jim Hazen, president and owner of Safe-T-Swim, says the company's 12 locations offer 15,000 lessons a week.
"We start them as young as 2 months old, and we do the education all the way through parenthood or caregiver. And what we like to do is start with the safety of the backyard, the alarms in the house, alarms in the pool, then we go to learn how to swim," Hazen says.