RALEIGH, N.C. – The mother of a Raleigh teenager who died when she jumped into an electrified swimming pool says regulations need to change at the state level and they need to change soon.
Seventeen-year-old Rachel Rosoff drowned Sept. 3 at a pool near 2226 Valley Forge Road.
North Carolina lawmakers filed a bill following Rachel Rosoff’s death but it has not yet been heard.
Rachel Rosoff’s mother says the state needs to look at it.
When Michelle Rosoff thinks about her daughter, she beams with pride.
“She had a lot of life and a lot of hope and a lot of aspirations and just a lot of promise, and she was my daughter. She was my love. I love her. She was my first born,” Michelle Rosoff said.
Rachel Rosoff was working as a lifeguard when she drowned.
“No parent should ever have to go through what we went through,” said her mother.
Inspection reports obtained by CBS North Carolina show the swimming pool’s pump motor broke, and a corroded wire prevented circuit breakers from tripping.
Following what happened, Rep. Mitchell Setzer (R-Catawaba) introduced House Bill 598.
It would require all public pools to have more protection, a ground fault device, on the electrical circuits.
“This is something that anybody could fall victim (to), and we don’t want to see anybody else hurt,” Setzer said.
The bill was filed April 5 and, so far, has not had a hearing in committee.
Setzer said lawmakers are working on adding language requiring yearly inspections to the bill, something the Rosoff family wants to see.
But Michelle Rosoff hopes to see something soon.
“The season is coming up in two months and these pools are unsafe,” she said.
Setzer said he is hopeful lawmakers will still be able to address the bill this session.
