NATION
THE BATTALION
h Study: black males
rown more often
■CHICAGO (AP) — The first na-
Hollywoo ponal study on childhood drownings
stars as [Isuygests that rivers, lakes and ponds
pise the biggest threat except for
e of them children under 5.
storv ” siifl 16 stud y 1S ' :)ased on figures col-
I '' '■ lec ted from death certificates for
I 1 1,420 children under age 20 who
onsultant. , . irir ,r t & • l
dlowned in 1995. It appears in the
run overair/Tli • rr> j- •
Jilly issue or Pediatrics.
■ “T hese national data will greatly as-
lecanie ^^Isilt researchers in understanding where
ipe tor a Ufa® ( | p, ou , t j iese deaths occur and in de
nes rising
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> decades ur.:
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eing this lot
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Drowning danger
■ones
A study in the July issue of the
journal Pediatrics examines nearly
1,500 childhood drownings, the
second-leading cause of
accidental death in children,
■ere’s a look at where most
• lie was brJ
drownings occur.
4%
Ocean or sea
—4
8%
Unspecified
m
tor's
I 9%
Bathtubs or buckets
Nearly 80 percent of
infant drownings occur
inside the home.
32%
Swimming pools
ild
k de
and hot tubs
Drownings in children
ages 1 to 4 are most
likely to occur in pools.
INCITES
second dav
47%
Rivers, lakes and
t, 1 {oUywofc.
ponds
Drownings in children
1 optimistic)!:
ages 5 to 19 are most
could read
likely to occur in
a strike din
vn 'IT and:
freshwater spots.
>n.
i a tors foi
Actors Guii SOURCE: Pediatrics
a Fedattw ■ §P "
AP
signing effective programs to prevent
drowning,” said Dr. Duane Alexander,
director of the National Institute of
Child Health and Human Develop
ment, which conducted the study.
Among children who died in acci- .
dental drownings, 5 percent were less
than one year old and 37 percent were
between 1 and 4 years old. Fifteen per
cent were age 5 to 9, 15 percent were
age 10 to 14, and 29 percent were be
tween 15 and 19 years old.
Seventy-four percent were male.
Forty-seven percent of the drown
ings happened in freshwater such as
rivers, creeks, lakes and ponds, while
32 percent happened in pools. Only 4
percent were in the ocean.
The most common drowning sites
by age group were bathtubs for infants,
pools for 1 - to 4-year-olds and fresh
water for 5- to 19-year-olds.
The study also found that after the
age of 5, black males face a 12 to 15
times higher risk of drowning in swim
ming pools than whites. While the re
search does not explain the disparity,
the authors’ theories include differ
ences in swimming abilities, in oppor
tunities to take swimming lessons and
in safety conditions in pools where
blacks and whites swim.
“A number of these deaths were in
pools accessible to the public, rather
than in private residential pools. Pub
lic pools hadn’t been a big area of con
cern; however, our results present a
very different picture,” said Dr. Ruth
Brenner, the lead author and a re
searcher at the N1CHD.
The audiors said the findings under
score die importance of recommenda
tions from the American Academy of
Pediatrics, which include constant su
pervision of infants and young children
around water, swimming lessons for all
children aged 5 and older, and use of life
jackets or other personal flotation de
vices when playing near rivers or lakes.
Independence day
Snook residents Cody Vajdak and Casey and Rhonda Jones and their two children,
Connor buy fireworks at a fireworks stand on Tommy and Ashley, who travel from Kansas to
Highway 60 Monday. The stand is run by Kevin sell fireworks in the Brazos Valley each year.
Man gets 120 years for girl's rape
CPIICAGO (AP) — A man was sen
tenced to 120 years in prison Monday
— the maximum — for a sex attack that
left a 9-year-old child known as Girl X
blind, mute and crippled.
“I do not believe that even this sen
tence is enough for the acts of this de
fendant, but the law limits the sentence
that I can impose,” Judge Joseph Urso
told Patrick Sykes, the 29-year-old con
victed sex offender.
Prosecutors said that in 1997, Sykes
lured a girl into an apartment at the
crime-ridden Cabrini-Green housing
project, sexually assaulted her, poured
roach spray down her throat, beat her
and left her for dead in a dirty stairwell.
The girl became known in the Chicago
media as Girl X.
Before the sentence was imposed,
Sykes took the witness stand and de
clared: “No matter how much time I get
in this courtroom today, I will still say it
is not me. 1 am innocent.”
Girl X testified this spring during
Sykes’ trial, using head movements to
answer questions. She said a man she
had often seen in her apartment build
ing offered her a banana, luring her into
an apartment, then pulled a knife on her.
On Monday, a prosecutor read a
statement initialed by Girl X, now 14
and in a wheelchair, in which she said:
“I am glad he is going to jail because he
was wrong for doing this to me.”
She also said that before the attack,
she liked to dance and run around. “I
miss walking and talking and playing
around and seeing,” the statement
read. “I can’t use my hands. I miss us
ing my hands.”
At the time of the attack, Sykes,;an
unemployed ex-convict, was living* in
the apartment building with a girl
friend. He denied being the attaclcer,
saying that he had never seen Girl X len
til she testified against him.
Police picked up Sykes and qq£s-
tioned him for three days. He ^as
charged after signing what his inter
rogators said was a confession.
He denied having confessed and said
he did not know what he was signing
because he 'was coming out of an epilep
tic seizure when the paper written in
longhand by a prosecutor was placed in
front of him.
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Add Some Sizzle To Your Summer
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Date
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• http://recsports.tamu.edii
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