JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Adam Finkel says the 4-year-old boy with autism the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office says drowned in a retention pond in Baymeadows last night didn’t have to lose his life.
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“We can save children’s lives. We can make our community safer,” Finkel, an attorney at Haggard Law Firm, said, “we shouldn’t wait for tragedy. As a community, we should be demanding more.”
Finkel represents families of kids who have drowned in retention ponds, like the family of 2-year-old Musiq Jordan-Dye, who Action News Jax told you drowned to death last year.
He was on his way to meet another family in Jacksonville who lost their child to a retention pond drowning when he stopped by Baypointe North, the neighborhood where the 4-year-old died Tuesday afternoon.
“There are far too many drownings across the U.S. We can do basic things to decrease this,” said Finkel.
The Autism Society of Florida says the state leads the nation in child drowning deaths. It also says drowning is the leading cause of death for children with autism, which it adds are naturally more attracted to water than neurotypical kids. The CDC says most children who drown in retention ponds are four years old or younger.
JSO is still investigating what led to the 4-year-old drowning in the pond, but says he was found the pond off Star Drive at around 6:50 PM after police had responded to a call about a missing child less than 90 minutes earlier. We’re told a helicopter was brought to help find the boy, who police say died in the hospital after being pulled from the pond.
Finkel says there’s a simple solution to preventing these deaths.
“You can have a fence that’s not going to bother anybody, but’s going to save children’s lives,” Finkel said.
There is no fence around the pond where police say the 4-year-old drowned, but Florida law doesn’t require fences to be put up around retention ponds. The law does say the ponds cannot be built more than one foot deep for every four feet it is built in length.
Finkel wants laws surrounding retention ponds in Florida to change, but says, right now, it’s up to homeowners and property managers to decide whether or not to fence them as a way of keeping people safe. DR Horton is the property manager for Baypointe North and manages dozens of other neighborhoods both in northeast Florida and around the U.S.
Finkel says the company is one of the places renters can contact if they want to see fences around retention ponds in their neighborhood.
“Call your landlord, call your property manager, call the owners of the complex and say, ‘we have these stormwater management systems, these ponds in our community, what is being done to make sure we are following mandatory safety laws?‘” Finkel said.
The 4-year-old who drowned has not yet been identified. Action News Jax will keep following this investigation and provide updates on-air and online.
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