By Gil Fried, Professor/Associate Dean, Lewis Bear Jr., College of Business, University of West Florida
Las Vegas Athletic Clubs (LVAC), with seven locations serving southern Nevada, is suing the Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD) after its lifeguard waiver was revoked by the District in early June.
The SNHD announced that it would be revoking LVAC’s waiver following an investigation into the apparent drowning death of a woman in early February. LVAC claimed the woman’s drowning death in early February was actually a “fatal heart attack,” which happened while the woman was surrounded by 15 other patrons. In response to the decision that would have cost the clubs a significant amount and would have possibly forced them to close the pools LVAC filed suit against the SNHD.
According to the suit, LVAC became aware of a new aquatic regulation in 2017-18 that would have required the venues to have three full-time lifeguards at each pool. LVAC sought a waiver that would allow it to monitor pool areas through video surveillance. That waiver was granted in 2020.
SNHD revoked the waiver in part because of its investigation into the patron’s death. In an inspection conducted a month after the patron’s death, SNHD found LVAC employees only checked the video feeds every 30 minutes, rather than having the feeds “permanently staffed” as required by the waiver.
The LVAC lawsuit claimed that closing down pools across all of its locations would significantly inconvenience customers. Additionally, LVAC estimated the cost of remodeling each facility to meet the SNHD’s order would cost between $7 million to $10 million per location, or $50 million to $70 million in total. LVAC in its suit suggests a compromise that would utilize train lifeguards to monitor the pools full-time, rather than for LVAC to incur remodeling costs.
LVBAC is not alone as other gyms/clubs have also had their waiver revoked. In early 2024 SNHD announced that it would no longer be allowing waivers of the lifeguard requirement for 29 pools across 20 private gym locations who had waivers in place.
The waiver, inspection, and now the lawsuit are examples of how parties need to work together for a mutually beneficial solution that can help all parties moving forward. The cost for full-time monitoring can be significant and there are various software systems out there that can monitor the pool and provide quicker and more accurate analysis compared with human viewers. The issue with lifeguards is also a national concern as many pools have not been opened or have had their hours shut down because it is harder finding qualified lifeguards who want to work.
A video of the incident was recently shared here: Las Vegas-area gym video surveillance shows swimmers exercising feet away as woman struggles, drowns (youtube.com)
