Articles Posted in Child Safety

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Hospital-Injuries-from-Fall-300x231There is a dangerous location in homes and day care centers that may not be so obvious. The location involves soft furniture like a sofa or bed. An infant or toddler left on a bed or sofa can suffer a fall, which can result in head injuries, extremity injuries and other injuries. The statistics from such injuries are quite alarming. Unfortunately, many parents, babysitters, and child care providers do not recognize the dangers of a fall from soft furniture until there is an injury or incident.

Newly released statistics demonstrate that falls from seemingly safe, soft furniture—like couches and beds—have now become the number one cause of injury for children ages four and under in the United States. Falls from soft furniture also present the leading cause of trauma for infants in the United States. These statistics, originally presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics’ annual conference this year, come from an aggregation of data from emergency rooms over the past decade. Analysis of these statistics reveals that injuries from soft furniture falls occur at more than double the rate of the second leading cause of injury to children younger than five years old—stairs. Analysis also indicates that boys tend to sustain these injuries more frequently than girls and that younger children present a greater risk of injury than older children.

Despite these alarming statistics, precautions can help reduce the rates of these injuries. Kids Health, a division of Nemours Children’s Hospital, recommends various techniques to reduce the likelihood of a child sustaining injuries from beds and sofas. These recommendations include: never leaving children unattended on soft furniture, removing children from soft furniture if one must leave for even a moment, holding children while on soft furniture if one uses a phone or another object that may distract from complete supervision, implementing bed rails, and teaching children how to properly climb on and off of soft furniture safely once they reach an appropriate age to learn this. Adults should also learn CPR and keep a first aid kit handy, just in case a child falls and sustains injuries. See Falls from Soft Furniture – Safety Precautions. 

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School-Bus-Safety-300x126In Georgia and other states, there is a daily weekday routine that all drivers should be well aware of – children crossing the street prior to loading a school bus OR after unloading from a school bus. Most buses are a bright yellow color with stop signal arms and flashing lights. Despite the obvious visual presence of a school bus, school bus zones, street signage, and traffic signals, there are still pedestrian accidents and school bus accidents that cause serious injuries to children. Tragically, some children die as a result of these incidents.

A recent accident in Georgia demonstrates the unfortunate reality of these tragedies. News reports indicate that one child died and another child sustained serious injuries when a car hit them as they crossed a road to board their school bus. It was reported that the car hit the two brothers because the driver attempted to pass their idling school bus even though the school bus had its stop signs out.  It was reported that the driver had a suspended license.

Unfortunately, incidents of this nature occur all too frequently. According to statistics released by Stanford Children’s Hospital, twenty-four percent of all school bus injuries occur when students enter or exit a school bus. Additionally, the ten-foot radius around a school bus constitutes a “danger zone.” In the danger zone, children are two times more likely to die than they are likely to die in a traffic accident on the school bus. Thus, it is more dangerous for a child to be near a school bus than it is for them to ride a school bus. See Stanford Children’s Hospital – How Safe Is School Bus Travel. 

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 By David Wolf, Child Injury Lawyer
Boy-Jumping-227x300There are a number of businesses in communities that not only anticipate that children will visit but encourage children to visit.  However, these same businesses fail to put safety precautions, rules, protocols, and staffing in place for the protection of the children who visit the trampoline park.  As a result, children are often injured and required medical care.  If a child is injured as a result of the staff of a trampoline park, a legal case or claim can be pursued on behalf of the injured child.
It has been reported that children under the age of 6 years old are at the highest risk of injury than other children and adults.  Furthermore, because of coordination issues, many child safety advocates recommend that toddlers stay off on trampolines and especially those with other larger and older children at play.  It is well known that children have poor safety awareness.  Without proper safety precautions and adult supervision, children are often injured at trampoline parks and bounce house locations.
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By David A. Wolf, Child Injury Lawyer Blog

Crayons-175x300Working parents rely upon day care centers so that the family can be supported and the child can be properly cared for during the work day.  Many day care centers do an excellent job of educating, supervising, and caring for the children enrolled in the child care program.  Other daycare centers, however, cut corners and end up harming the children that they are responsible for supervising.  It is certainly unfortunate and tragic in many cases when a child suffers personal injuries in a day care center.  While government monitoring and regulation can help weed out and close down bad day care centers, it is impossible for any form of governmental regulation to prevent all injuries from taking place.

One article mentioned that a single state had 115 instances where day care centers were not meeting the minimum child to staff ratios, thereby leaving young children unattended and increasing the likelihood of harm. See Mississippi Increases Oversight of Day Care Centers. Many day care centers are underfunded and simply cannot afford to maintain the appropriate number of employees to adequately supervise the number of children at the center. This problem is very serious for young children of all ages. Infants need constant supervision to prevent accidents such as rolling off of changing tables or swallowing small objects, and toddlers need constant supervision to ensure that they are learning how to share and play well with others as well as to prevent them from injuring themselves or others or trying to run away.

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By David A. Wolf, Child Injury Lawyer Blog

Skateboards-300x249Let’s face it. There is never a good time for a child to be injured.  As parents, we work tirelessly to provide for our children and keep them safe.  Unfortunately, situations, incidents, and accidents take place that lead to or cause personal injuries to children.  Some incidents are foreseeable and some are not.  Some are preventable and some are not. For instance, if a child is a passenger in a motor vehicle that is rear ended, there typically is nothing that could have been done to prevent the accident from taking place in most situations.  There are other injuries that take place during the holiday season that may be prevented or lessened through better supervision and the implementation of safety measures.

Many children are injured during the holidays after receiving new toys that require balance that they have yet to obtain. To avoid this, children must have appropriate supervision when playing with their new toys. In addition to lack of supervision with new toys, some toys may also have manufacturing or design defects that can cause injuries to a child.  In addition, injuries during the holidays occur because there are more people on the roads due to holiday travel. It is important to have properly installed car seats and booster seats to minimize the risk of injury in an accident, it is also important to have the proper equipment for traveling in harsh weather conditions such as ice and snow. However, even with these safety measures, some accidents are unavoidable and require legal guidance. Yet another reason that injuries occur during the holidays is an increase in alcohol consumption due to holiday festivities such as New Year’s Eve.

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By David A. Wolf, Attorney – Child Injury Lawyer Blog

book4In Tennessee and other States, parents rely upon bus transporation for their children during the school year. Most bus rides to and from school are quite uneventful which is a good thing. There are days in which a school bus accident results in serious personal injury and even death to innocent children riding a school bus. From a legal standpoint, a school bus accident case can be quite complex. If a public or government entity is involved, there can be procedures to go through and caps or limits on the amount of damages that can be recovered. In addition, a school bus crash often involves multiple victims and families who may be arguably competing for a limited pool of money or insurance. It was recently reported that there was a deadly school bus accident in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In multiple media outlets, the crash involved a single school bus that turned over on its side after hitting a tree. There were 35 students on the bus with 23 individuals transported to the hospital for medical care. Tragically, initial reports indicated that there were 6 fatalities / deaths resulting from this school bus crash. Due to the nature of the crash, serious personal injuries, and deaths, local and state police officials will conduct a detailed investigation to determine the cause, manner, mechanism, and preventability of this Tennessee school bus crash.

In the State of Tennessee and other states, government entities are protected some extent from lawsuits and personal injury claims. The manner in which a government entity can be sued is typically proscribed by statute. In Tennessee, a claim or case can be pursued against a government entity for the negligent driving of an employee, official, or agent of the government. While a claim or case can be pursued, there are caps or limits to recovery in Tennessee. An individual or surviving family member can recover up to $300,000 incident; however, there is an aggregate cap of $700,000 per incident. As such, the amount that a government entity can be held liable for in a school bus crash in Tennessee can be quite limited if there are more than a couple of claims. Certainly, the financial recovery in a wrongful death case against a private entity or individual can easily exceed the $300,000 as provided in Tennessee law.

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By David A. Wolf, Attorney – Child Injury Lawyer Blog

Toy Train.001In Utah and other states, day care centers have a duty to provide a reasonably safe educational environment for the children enrolled in the program.  It is important that the day care center follow all licensing requirements and have trained staff in place to meet the needs of the children. Supervision  and attentiveness are vital to the safety and welfare of the children.  The level of supervision will depend on the type of facility, number of children, age of the children, special needs of the children, time of the day, activity and other factors.  There are dangers lurking at all times that an infant or toddler is being cared for in a day care center. It is vital for staff members to be aware of the dangers and remove or prevent all such dangerous situations to the best of the ability and foresight of the day care center.

A recent tragedy was reported in at a West Jordan, Utah day care center.  It as reported that a toddler – Leonardo “Leo” Sanchez – crawled under a bean bag and ultimately suffocated.  A seemingly simple object – a bean bag chair – turned out to be a very dangerous object in a day care center for a small child like Leo Sanchez.  It is well known that small children are curious and will crawl into or go into areas which can be quite dangerous.  Another dangerous situation or object for a toddler or infant in a day care center is an unanchored dresser or TV stand.  There have been a number of reports of children being injured or even dying as a result of a dresser, TV stand, or TV that has fallen over on top of a child.  Sleeping and napping time can also present dangers as well to infants.  A stuffed animal or blanket can cause a child to suffocate during this otherwise seemingly safe part of a day care center.

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By David A. Wolf, Attorney – Child Injury Lawyer Blog

book-abcOne basic duty of every day care center is the duty of supervision. Many day care centers are located on her near busy roadways, streets, neighborhoods, and commercial developments.  As such, the duty to supervise the children is vital the health, safety, and welfare of the children enrolled in the day care program. In some instances, a child is unharmed when he or she wanders away from a day care center.  An astute bystander or police officer locates the child and returns the child to the day care center.  While the situation could have escalated into something quite horrible, the child did not receive any injuries and soon forgets about the whole incident.  On the other hand, there are incidents involving the wandering of a child away from a day care center that results in serious personal injuries and even the tragic death of the child. One such incident took place in Olathe, Kansas when a child was hit and killed by a pick up truck. The incident took place on a residential street in a vicinity near the the day care center.  The news report identified the toddler as Harper Kay Rodden.  In initial news reports, there were no details as to how the 14 month toddler had exited the day care center, how the 14 month old toddler was supervised prior to exiting the facility, what safeguards were in place for the protection and safety of the children, and what steps could have or should have been taken to protect this child from wandering out of the day care center facility.
In a day care center case, there are essentially four elements to prove:
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By David A. Wolf

Child Injury Lawyer Blog

House with Red Roof Personal InjuriesOne of the safest place for children should be the home.   As parents, we work tirelessly to provide for a clean and safe living environment for our children.  Other safe places for children should include schools, day care centers, child care centers, and summer camps.  Unfortunately for some children who are in some supposedly safe environments, serious injuries take place.  When a company manufacturers, distributes, and / or sells a household product, piece of furniture, or safety gate, the consumer should be able to justifiably rely on the quality of the product and the intended use and function of the product.   A recent recall of safety or child gates by IKEA is a prime example of a product that allegedly failed which, int turn, caused personal injuries to unsuspecting children.   The safety gate had a latch that apparently disengaged which, in turn, allowed the gate to open.   The safety gate was used in many homes to block off an area leading to or from stairs in a home.   Stairs can be extremely dangerous to infants, toddlers, and small children.   It should be noted that a products liability case like other types of personal injury cases involves four essential elements as follows:

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By David Wolf, Attorney
Published by Child Injury Lawyer Blog

ChildAbuse-IconDavidBusy working parents rely upon day care centers, child care centers, and summer camps to provide a safe learning environment for children. On most days for most children, there is excellent education, supervision, and care.  Unfortunately, for far too many children, a day care center, child care center, or summer camp is the site of a abuse, neglect, and molestation of a child.  It is tragic when a child is subject to abuse or neglect in the very environment where the child should be protected.  When a child is abused or neglected in a day care center, the parent of the child can pursue a civil case or claim against the day care center, the day care center worker, and others who may be liable or at-fault for the injuries caused to the child.  It should be noted that a civil case is quite different than a criminal case or an administrative case against the day care center work and owner.  A civil case can be brought assuming that a parent can establish the following four elements against the Defendant as follows:
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