Virginia Graeme Baker Act

Houston Pool Accident Attorney Michael Grossman on the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool & Spa Safety Act

7-year-old Virginia Graeme Baker suffered a terrible pool accident in June of 2002. Even at that young of an age, she was an accomplished swimmer, a member of both her community’s diving team and swim team.

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The fatal pool accident occurred when she became trapped in the drain of a hot tub. Her mother attempted to assist her, but was unable to free her from the drain. Two men tried to rescue her as well and the amount of force they applied to the situation resulted in the drain cover breaking off. Graeme, as she was known to her family, died as a result of drowning due to being entrapped by a faulty drain cover.

Graeme was the granddaughter of a well-known public figure, former Secretary of State James Baker III. Following the terrible pool accident, Graeme’s mother, Nancy Baker, worked to ensure that future, tragic accidents did not have to cause further grief to other families due to the same type of hazardous situation. The bill that would eventually pass into law on December 19, 2007 would be known as the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool & Spa Safety Act in honor of the small child that lost her life in such a catastrophic way. The bill would ensure that all public pools and spas use anti-entrapment drain covers and other safety devices in order to prevent such fatal pool accidents from occurring.

The findings contained in the Virginia Graeme Baker Act speak to the severity of drowning pool accidents occurring to children:

Congress finds the following (SEC. 1402: FINDINGS):

  1. Of injury-related deaths, drowning is the second leading cause of death in children aged 1 to 14 in the United States.
  2. In 2004, 761 children aged 14 and under died as a result of unintentional drowning.
  3. Adult supervision at all aquatic venues is a critical safety factor in preventing children from drowning.
  4. Research studies show that the installation and proper use of barriers or fencing, as well as additional layers of protection, could substantially reduce the number of childhood residential swimming pool drownings and near drownings.

The Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act requires public pools and spas to have installed ASME/ANSI A112.19.8-2007 compliant drain covers. If there is only a single main drain, other than an unblockable drain, then a secondary anti-entrapment system must also be installed. Public pools can include apartment complex pools, school pools, hotel pools, or spas or hot tubs also located these places. If these entities do not have the proper types of drains installed in their pools, the owners or property managers of these sites could be in violation of federal law. Even more seriously, the lack of proper anti-entrapment pool drains could lead to severe personal injury or even death.

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Contact Houston Pool Accident Attorney Michael Grossman

If you or your child have suffered an injury due to a pool accident or drowning, you may be able to seek compensation for your injury or your child’s injury through a personal injury lawsuit in Houston. Should you have had the tragic experience to have lost a loved one due to entanglement, entrapment, or evisceration due to a faulty drain cover or a type of mechanical malfunction at a pool, you may be able to pursue justice for your loss through a Houston wrongful death lawsuit. In these types of civil lawsuits, we have two goals in mind for our clients. We want to ensure that they’re fully and fairly compensated so that they can attempt to return to their lives as they were before the accident. However, we also want to ensure that the liable parties are held fully accountable for their negligent behavior so that future accident do not have to cause another person injury or another family grief.

With 20 years of personal injury and wrongful death experience in Texas, Houston pool accident lawyer Michael Grossman can assist you in seeking compensation and pursuing justice for a pool, spa, or hot tub accident that may have caused you injury or loss. Contact our pool accident attorneys at 1-855-392-0000 for a toll-free legal consultation to discuss the details of your pool accident case.


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Through litigation, our attorneys countered the defendant's arguments by showing that the case law does not support the notion of any safety related concerns in the building code being "grandfathered" in. On the contrary, a property owner has an obligation to keep safety features such as balcony railings within the specs at all times. The railings in this complex were spaced at 7 inch intervals, which was at odds with the now-standard 4 inch interval.

Additionally, our attorneys countered the claims of contributory negligence as a practical matter in that the mother was indeed monitoring the child's activity and the child literally ran up to the railing and immediately fell through the rails. Alternatively, we argued that the doctrine of parental immunity applied and that the contributory negligence, if any such negligence ever even occurred, of the mother would not be admissible. The case was satisfactorily resolved through litigation.
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