'He loved water': Toddler ran away from parents, crawled under hotel pool fence, drowned

A teenager looking after two children and a baby in a hotel pool saw toddler Meziah Kiria trying to get in through the pool’s child-safe gate. 

When she next saw him, he was swimming in the deep end alone, and as she looked around, she realised no adults were with him. 

Not a confident swimmer and with other children to watch, the 19-year-old decided the best thing to do was to find his parents. 

When she did, it was too late. His mother and father rushed to pull Meziah from the pool and give him CPR, but he had drowned. 

Coroner Alexander Ho has released his findings into Meziah’s death in 2023. 

The coroner said he was “hesitant” to be critical of the young woman, as she was not legally responsible for the boy. 

However, the tragedy showed a child can get into trouble in water “very quickly” and “general alertness” to young ones around water was the “difference between life and death”. 

‘Meziah loved the water’ 

Meziah lived in South Auckland with his parents, but when the Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods hit in January 2023, they had to leave their home. 

They were temporarily relocated to the Holiday Inn Auckland Airport hotel, which had a pool, and Meziah’s parents would often take him to swim there in his floaties. 

“Meziah loved the water,” Coroner Ho said in his decision. 

On an evening in March 2023 when it was still light, Meziah and his parents found themselves locked out of their hotel room. 

His mother went to see if she could get in through the room’s back door, while his dad continued to try to get in through the front. 

The toddler was sitting in the corridor by his dad watching videos on one of their phones, but when his mum left, he got up to follow her. 

Meziah’s dad yelled out that the toddler should just go with his mother, but she didn’t hear and the boy followed her until he peeled off and headed for the pool. 

The decision said CCTV footage showed Meziah unsuccessfully trying to get into the pool area via a child-safe locked gate. 

Undeterred, Meziah went around the pool perimeter and found a gap in the pool’s glass fence to crawl under. 

The teenager was in the pool at the time, looking after two kids aged 8 and 4 and a 9-month-old baby. 

The decision said because she had seen Meziah, who she recognised as a hotel guest, trying to open the gate and then saw him in the water, she assumed he had an adult with him who had let him in. 

When she and the children left, she looked around and realised no one was looking after Meziah. 

The toddler was in the deeper end of the pool and the woman wasn’t a confident swimmer, the coroner said. 

For those reasons, and because she had other children to look after, she decided it was best to leave the pool and find his parents. 

She bumped into Meziah’s father in the hotel, telling him where the toddler was, and he rushed to get the mother before they raced to the pool. 

Meziah was pulled from the water and given CPR, but could not be resuscitated. 

A post-mortem examination identified he died from drowning. 

Coroner Ho said several factors contributed to Meziah’s death, firstly that, although it was “no one’s fault”, the toddler had managed to elude his parents. 

Secondly, Meziah had found an “undetected access point” to the pool, the coroner said. 

The decision said when the pool was last inspected by the council in May 2022, the 180-195mm gap between the glass panels and the ground was not identified as a safety issue. 

Coroner Ho said there was “no evidence” the hotel knew a small child would be able to wiggle through that gap. 

The third factor was that the young woman did not stop Meziah from getting in the pool and, despite her “good intentions” in finding a supervising adult, her decision to leave the pool area. 

Although it was not her legal duty to do so, and she had children to look after, her not intervening was a “missed opportunity to prevent harm”, the coroner said. 

Children can drown ‘very quickly’ 

The coroner said it was important that pool owners make sure fencing around a pool is enough to keep out unattended children. 

He noted the hotel told the Coroner’s Court that it has always taken pool safety seriously and had installed a wooden plank in the gap Meziah had crawled through, directly after his death. 

Within a week, the coroner said the hotel had ordered new fencing to close the gap, and he acknowledged their speed in addressing the pool’s safety. 

He emphasised children can drown “very quickly”, and must be supervised around bodies of water. 

Meziah’s death raised issues about societal duties, the coroner said, and although the young woman wasn’t legally responsible for Meziah, general alertness around children and bodies of water was “the difference between life and death”. 

Ella Scott-Fleming has been a journalist for three years and previously worked at the Otago Daily Times, Gore Ensign and Metro Magazine. She has an interest in court and general reporting. She’s currently based in Auckland covering justice-related stories.