JEFFERSON CITY, Mo –

Savannah Cory misses her brother.

“I miss his laugh, and his macho walk, and his glasses getting dirty,” she said in her tear-filled testimony Tuesday before the House special committee on health insurance.

Savannah Cory’s brother, 6-year-old Ethan Cory, drowned at a Joplin water park, the Swimmin’ Hole, July 17, 2007. Rep. Marilyn Ruestman (R-Joplin), hopes House Bill 1341, to be known as Ethan Law, will prevent other deaths by using insurance companies to police private for-profit pools. Ruestman said insurance companies would inspect for things like size, occupancy, safety regulations and lifeguarding, a subject of controversy after Ethan Cory’s death, as there are many locations in the park that are blocked from view, and lifeguard training was questionable.

HB 1341 would require any private for-profit pool or water park to carry a minimum of $1 million in insurance coverage. At the time of Ethan Cory’s death the pool had no insurance.

“This is not a revenge bill,” Ruestman said, though, after the bills introduction, Swimmin’ Hole owner James Burt said the cost of the insurance would put him out of business.

Community pools, hotel pools, water parks and amusement park water rides all carry their own liability insurance, however privately owned pools outside the city limits fall into a narrow category.

“We only found three for sure, possibly four,” Ruestman said.

Ethan Corey was one of 34 children taken to the Swimmin’ Hole with the Boys and Girls Club. Two lifeguards were on duty at the park. After Ethan Cory’s death, evidence was discovered there had been multiple accidents at the park including broken bones and head injuries.

“No one was watching Ethan when he drowned in five feet of water,” said Lauren Cory, Ethan’s mother. “Another child found our son’s body in the water.”

The bill, if passed, would mandate a fine of $100 a day and/or one day in jail for pool owners who don’t carry appropriate insurance. However, the day in jail may be dropped to speed the bills passage.

I went back there [to the park] two weeks later,” said John Cory, father of Ethan Cory and a Joplin firefighter. “There were kids everywhere, and a lifeguard up there texting.”

Attempts to contact James Burt prior to press time were unsuccessful.

No formal action on the bill was taken by the committee.