Buckets to Save Excess Water Pose Trap to Toddlers

In their zeal to conserve water, San Diegans who use a particular type of 5-gallon bucket to store rainwater and warm up water may be setting up death traps for their toddlers, Children’s Hospital officials warned Friday.

Rigid plastic buckets, usually white, are small enough for a toddler to fall into headfirst and sturdy enough to keep from toppling over, trapping the infant upside down, said Children’s Hospital spokesman Mark Morelli.

“Toddlers and infants are slightly top-heavy,” Morelli said. “So, when they fall in headfirst, they don’t have the weight to topple the bucket over.”

In 1990, 67 infants nationwide drowned this way, including an 11-month-old Vista boy, Morelli said. As conservation measures become stricter, hospital officials worry that more partly filled buckets will be left lying around the home, and the number of drownings will increase.

Hardware stores across the county report brisk sales of the buckets, which cost about $5 and are used for anything from storing paint to pickling olives.

“Primarily what people are buying them for is to catch the warm-up water when they take a shower in the morning,” said Everett Ruiz, manager of Ace Maintenance Mart in La Mesa. “And they’re using it for the gray water, catching it out of their washing machines.”

Ruiz said store employees are familiar with the danger of children drowning in the buckets, and they routinely warn customers to keep them away from children. The buckets are usually sold without lids.

Eleven-month-old Jesus Sandoval drowned last April after falling headfirst into a 5-gallon bucket in his Vista home, according to the county medical examiner’s office. The baby was taken to Children’s Hospital and put on life-support systems but died later that day.

Morelli said there were only about 8 inches of liquid--cleaning solvent mixed with water--in the bucket the Sandoval infant fell into.

“People should use the smaller buckets that aren’t made of such rigid plastic,” Morelli said. “The softer plastic would probably collapse with the weight of the youngster.”