The Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office filed an indictment in the city’s Magistrate Court for causing death by negligence against the defendant who worked as a lifeguard in a hotel pool in Jerusalem.

According to the indictment filed by attorney Chen Ben-Shalom on December 11, 2015, the defendant, 24, was a hotel pool lifeguard. During the shift, the mother of the minor and her six children arrived at the pool. The indictment states that during the shift, the defendant did not observe the guests in the pool. She sat in the lifeguard’s position all the time, did not walk around the pool to watch what was happening in the water and did not get up to stand in a way that would allow her to look after the swimmers and watch what was going on in the water. In addition, the defendant spoke on her mobile phone during the shift.

According to the indictment, while the defendant was engaged in a telephone conversation and she did not notice that there were minors in the deep water, including the deceased, a 6-year-old girl. She failed to take notice and did not look after them and did nothing to prevent the drowning.

At one point, the deceased drowned in the deep water of the pool, a few meters away from the lifeguard’s post. The defendant, who was engaged in a long telephone conversation, did not notice the girl drowning.

One of the swimmers who noticed what was happening dived in the pool and worked to extricate the child from the deep water. When the defendant saw this, she got up from her seat and ran to the woman and began efforts to resuscitate the victim for several minutes after the minor had lost consciousness and had stopped breathing.

The minor was evacuated in critical condition, in cardiac arrest, to Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem. On January 6, 2016, as a result of the drowning, the small child died.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)