Seemingly paradoxically-but not. Electrocutions in fresh water are caused by the votage drop in the poor conductivity of poorly ionized water. I would like to see some research into adding a highly conductive path such as a metal cable across the 3 dimensions of the pool that would be electrically grounded at both ends. The idea is to give a low resistance parallel path to any current.

From the video, it appears the light fixture is 3/4 full of water. A working GFCI should have prevented the pool from being energized. Either it failed 'ON', or it was not there. Remember, everything fails eventually. Newer GFCI's are not supposed to fail ON but I have seen older one's do so. There is enough voltage gradient (call it resistance) from the hot side of the conductor to the ground that a a breaker did not trip. Remember grounding is not bonding. It will be interesting to find out what the cause was. We can all learn from it. What a horrible experience for a family. There needs to be a better way of telling when water is energized, that is, without using a meter.

This is a very sad story,but the old saying "electricity & water don't mix" is so so true. So people with pools have it and all auxiliary pool equip. checked for it to be grounded and the use of low voltage lights.

This is why I don't do pools!

The word Electrocute is death by electric shock. His daughter was not electrocuted but suffered a serve shock. As an Certified Electrical forensic witness I here Attorneys miss use this word a lot.

A tragesty none the less.

I sent a copy of this to my pool guy with an introductory e-mail and I suggest youall do the same.

These types pool deaths are so hard to read about when there is a simple fix for those where the pool is working and the water is at least as high as the skimmer. BURNDY offers a product BWB680IG and AG for In Ground and Above Ground pools that will maintain constant contact with Ground and the Water. If other electrical issues in the pumps or lighting or externally induced voltage occur, the water and all bonded items will be at the same potential. This also puts the pool in compliance with NEC 680.26C and 680.26B. It will not solve those incidents where pools are not in operation with partial filling and electrical problems. It will be interesting to see the final report on this incident and the root cause analysis. However, based on what we see in the article today, the death could have been avoided with one of these simple devices installed.

A sad story for sure. From the news clip that looked to be an older pool and maybe one with an old 120 volt pool light. I went on a call once where the customer was complaining about getting a small shock when getting out of the water touching the hand rail. I put one of my meter's probes in the pool's water and touched the other probe to the railing. "120 volts" I was shocked, no pun intended here. I went to the old pools equipment and sure enough there was no pool light transformer. The old pool light was 120 volts. You can just imagine what we had to do to fix the problem with cut saws, jack hammers, #8 bare copper, solderless lugs, new pool equipment, a permit, and of course a new 12 volt Pool Light and Transformer. Then came the concrete people for the deck repairs!

I don't understand how swimming in a pool is any different than a bird on a wire. Wouldn't he have to touch something grounded for current to flow thru him. If he did touch something grounded, it that the same ground that the water is already touching. Why is the current going to flow thru him?

Can someone explain pool electrocution to me?

Muy lamentable este accidente, se requiere de una investigaci?n para detectar el incumplimiento de la norma (NEC) y el responsable o responsables involucrados en la instalaci?n. Uno pudiera pensar que en los EU se cumple cabalmente la norma el?ctrica y que en M?xico se hacen mal las cosas, pero esto me deja como experiencia que en cualquier pa?s se puede caer en corrupci?n.

Only the father was electricuted. His daughter suffered a servere electrical shock. This is error is fairly common. I reccomend a forensic Electrical Expert be used to certify a pool is safely wired and grounded. It must also have GFCI protection.