JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Police in Jacksonville said a 1-year-old boy drowned Thursday night in a bucket outside of the family's home on the city's Westside.
According to police, the child's mother was cooking dinner about 8 p.m. and the child wandered outside through a sliding glass door that was left open by an older sibling.
Officers said at some point the child fell into a bucket containing a mixture of bleach and water and drowned.
The property manager told Channel 4 a neighbor kept the bucket on his porch because he cleans golf balls for a living.
"Everybody knows these babies be out here playing, so he should know better than to leave a bucket out there for them to get hurt in," said resident Celissa Smith.
Safety experts say a drowning like this is not as uncommon as people might think.
"A small child has a very heavy head, so when they go to look into something, they topple over into it," said Jessica Winberry of Safe Kids of Northeast Florida. "(They) don't have the body strength to get themselves up out of it."
Winberry recommends putting door locks high enough that children can't reach them and have layers of security between kids and any source of water.