Recent studies have shown that more than four thousand Americans die as a result to accidental drowning related accidents. Drowning is the second leading cause of injury to the death of a child within the range of fourteen and younger. Each year in the United States, approximately five thousand children are hospitalized for near drowning.

Thirty percent of near-drowning victims can suffer severe and permanent neurological disability. Four in a half million dollars a year, is spent on long-term care and medical expenses for a near-drowning victims. Liability for drowning related accidents and injuries incorporates premise liability law. In most states, the premises liability law distinguishes between rather trespassers, or a person the owner did not give permission to enter the said premises.

A person's ability to recover for an injury from someone else's property, becomes a case where the injury occurred in a pool, pond, or lake, this is up to the category by which a court places the injured person. If for instance a court categorizes a person as a trespasser, the law generally protects a property owner from being liable in all cases where the trespasser sustained their injury.

There are three states, Arizona, California, and Oregon, and numerous cities that has passed laws that requires the property owners to erect fences around any private pools, to prevent children from accessing the pools. The ordinances can make the property owner liable if they failed to erect a fence within certain states and cities. Even under a theory of negligence or strict liability in a case of trespassing children and adults that may have become injured or deceased from drowning. The failure to maintain the fence can result in full liability if the child is trespassing, and incurs injury.

Some states ask or require property owners to hang up warning signs, if there is cause enough to have to warn others of any dangers, including diving in a shallow pool, or safety equipment. In addition, describe any dangers of swimming alone. Cases that involve a swimming accident that results in a drowning, the estate or surviving blood relatives of the deceased can claim a wrongful death lawsuit, which recovers compensatory damages including lost future earning, and medical expenses.