Father's Fight For Safer Pool Lights Heads To Tallahassee

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TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami) - It's been ten months since Calder Sloan was electrocuted while swimming in his family pool. You may recall his self-portrait called mister awesome traveled the world following his death. Today state legislation was filed in Mr. Awesome's name, legislation that may prevent further tragedies from happening.

When Calder Sloan was electrocuted swimming in his family pool the world took notice. The 7-year old's self-portrait, titled Mr. Awesome, traveled the world reminding everyone about the value of life.

Now, Mr. Awesome's legacy is hoping to make another giant leap, to make the world a safer place.

"We really, really hope that he continues to save lives and that'll be his legacy. In no way with all these amazing things that have happened make up for his loss. But it's a nice little step that insures Calder didn't die completely in vain," said his father, Chris Sloan, after hearing the bill had been officially filed Tuesday.

When Calder died CBS4 began investigating several incidents involving swimmers either shocked or killed while swimming in pools. The series of reports led both Miami-Dade and Broward County to pass new laws banning high voltage pool lights. But with more than million pools state-wide and millions more nationwide Sloan felt the need to keep going. "All of work is just getting started. It's quite daunting and intimidating but if we just stop here than we haven't done our jobs," Sloan said.

CLICK HERE to watch David Sutta's report

For months Sloan has met behind closed doors with politicians hammering out a bill filed Tuesday.

The legislation requires:
-inspections of pool lights in all public pools every 5 years
-disclosing at the sale of every home with a pool the dangers of high voltage pool lights
-and limiting the voltage of all new pool lights to 15 volts

Combined the measures might have saved Calder's life.

"What we've discovered is there is so many things that can go wrong in a pool that can lead to fatal injuries. And we weren't aware of that. And had we been aware of that you damn right we would have had a pool inspected." Sloan explained. Getting this passed may not be easy. Calder's legacy to save lives could come down to whether politicians can lend themselves to the cause.

Sloan realizes this is and is willing to do whatever it takes to get the votes needed.

"There is no guarantee that this is going to pass. We need Republican sponsorship. We need people to reach across the aisle and realize this isn't a partisan issue. This is about saving the lives of not only the citizens, but really children," said Chris Sloan.

The Florida legislature begins its session in two weeks. Right now this bill only has Democrat sponsors in a Republican majority House and Senate. Sloan says he's more than willing to make the case in
Tallahassee. Miami-Dade's Mayor Carlos Gimenez has pledged to be there too.