Toddler Dies After Fall Into Pool Child Spent Night In Hospital After Hayden Lake Accident

A 2-1/2-year-old Hayden Lake boy died Thursday after falling into his grandparent’s swimming pool.

Austin Ronald Martin Wright died about 7:30 a.m. after spending the night in a Spokane hospital.

The boy apparently fell into the inground pool after his 6-year-old uncle accidentally left open a gate leading into the swimming area.

“They’re just a great, wonderful family that got caught in the middle of a tragedy,” said Nile Shirley, a Kootenai County sheriff’s lieutenant and a friend of the family.

Austin Wright lived with his parents in a home behind his grandparents’ house at 1175 Whispering Pines Road.

The pool, surrounded by a fence, is owned by the boy’s grandfather, Ron McIntire, owner of Super-1 Foods.

Robin Wright, the boy’s mother, told investigators she had planned to take the boy swimming at her parents’ house Wednesday afternoon.

Before heading over there, she let the toddler play on a gym set between the two homes, according to a sheriff’s report.

She looked outside and saw the boy playing. She turned away to go into the bathroom and then spent a few minutes talking to her sister-in-law, Karen McIntire, who had stopped by.

Robin Wright estimated the boy had not been out of her sight for more than five minutes, according to the sheriff’s report.

She and Karen McIntire then headed toward the grandparents’ house. They didn’t find the boy on the gym and instead found him floating face down in the swimming pool.

The two women gave the boy CPR. He eventually was flown to Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane where he died Thursday morning.

The pool is surrounded by a 6-foot high fence. The latch to the gate also is 6 feet off the ground.

Several older children had been playing in the pool earlier, according to a sheriff’s report.

A 6-year-old, who may have been able to reach the latch by standing on a chair, apparently left the gate open, according to the sheriff’s report.

“It was a pure accident,” Shirley said. “This place was like a fortress - it has high fences, a gate with a latch. A little 2-year-old can move like lightning.

“They’re a very close family. They’re very distraught and heartbroken.”

, DataTimes