Man, 23, awarded almost $5 million after being injured as child in fall at Burnaby pool

A B.C. Supreme Court decision has awarded a man who as a preschooler suffered a lifelong brain injury after a fall from the high diving board at a Burnaby city pool almost $5 million in damages. Photo by Diane Crocker /Handout

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A B.C. Supreme Court judge has awarded almost $5 million to a man who suffered a lifelong brain injury as a toddler in a fall from a diving board at a City of Burnaby pool.

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Samir Georgi was four years old when in May 2007 he was allowed to jump from the three-metre board by his instructor in the Crocodile swim lessons group for kids ages seven-and-under at C.G. Brown Memorial Pool in Burnaby.

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He was comfortable jumping off the edge of the pool and the one-metre board and asked to jump off the three-metre board. The instructor, Reynante Salazar, allowed it.

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Based on Salazar’s statement to an insurance adjuster after the accident, the instructor accompanied Georgi to the ladder and watched him climb up. Salazar instructed the boy to wait until Salazar was in the water below to supervise, according to the decision by Justice John Walker.

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Georgi successfully jumped off the diving board and appeared “comfortable and happy,” wrote Walker. “He displayed confidence and competence, and he had followed Mr. Salazar’s guidance.”

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Salazar gave permission for Georgi to repeat the jump. This time, the boy walked to the ladder and went up while Salazar remained in the water.

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Georgi then fell off the side of the board to the concrete pool deck below, landing on his back and then hitting his head, according to the judgment.

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Court heard from pool manager David Rose that at the time of the accident there were no rules preventing the use of the three-metre board based on the user’s age, children in the Crocodile group weren’t instructed on the safe use of the high board, and instructors were not trained on how to supervise children on that board.

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However, children under age seven were required to be directly supervised by an adult when using it, and that would require the adult to be at the board monitoring the child, Rose testified.

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Salazar testified he understood that only one person was allowed on the board at a time, court heard.

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And a sign did specify that children under seven using the board needed an adult supervisor 16 years or older in the water, the judgment said.

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A water safety expert, Tom Griffiths, testified that children under age 12 shouldn’t use a three-metre board because of the risk of a child experiencing anxiety or getting distracted on the narrow board.

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He also said additional safeguards should have been in place.

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Rose testified that within a year after the accident the pool installed Plexiglas on both sides of the board to prevent future falls, according to the decision.

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“While there is no evidence of what caused Mr. Georgi to fall, his fall was the direct result of him being allowed to use the three-metre diving board without appropriate supervision,” according to Walker’s decision.

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The City of Burnaby’s “breach of their duty of care caused Mr. Georgi’s injuries,” he concluded.