Child Injury Lawyer Blog
By Steven Smith, Attorney and David Wolf, Attorney
Published by Child Injury Lawyer Network
In New York and other States, day care owners, operators, and employees have a duty to provide a safe environment for children. In particular, safety precautions should be taken to insure that children are not exposed to the dangers of drownings from swimming pools, bath tubs, lakes, rivers, canals, and, yes, mop buckets. A simple mop bucket can be deadly to an unsupervised infant or toddler. In Queens, New York, an 11 month old boy, while in a day care center, fell into a mop bucket and drowned. The child was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Krystal Khan, age 28, was later charged with the crime of endangering the welfare of a child. This tragic event could have been avoided with more diligent supervision and safety precautions for the children. You can read about this story at Child Dies After Falling into a Mop Bucket at a New York Day Care Center.
A recent autopsy confirmed that a 6 year old boy (Apollo Fuller) died as a result of a drowning incident in Lake Lahontan, Nevada. The autopsy results showed no signs of foul play, crime or trauma that would indicate causes of death other than the drowning. Apollo was reported missing and then there was a search for him. The boy apparently had disappeared while using or playing on a water trampoline. News report did not detail what safety precautions were in place at the lake for small children like Apollo. There were also sparse details about the size, type, make, and set up of the water trampoline. It is quite a tragedy for the family of Apollo Fuller and his community. You can read more about this story at 
In Richmond, Virginia, a 13 month old boy was left in a day care van for at least 4 hours and died from heat exposure. Andrew Joseph Johnson was picked up at his home in the morning by driver Keishawn L. Whitfield. The plan was to drop Andrew off at the day care known known at the Yellow Brick Road Day Care & Learning Center. Unfortunately and tragically, Andrew was left in the hot van for at least 4 hours according to news reports. The state medical examiner for Virginia determined that the cause of death was environmental heat exposure.
A Bleckley County (Georgia) corrections officer was arrested in June, 2009 for distributing child pornography. A Cobb County, Georgia police detective posed as a 13 year old girl in an undercover operation. The corrections officer, Jason Shane Price, sent the undercover detective sexually explicit messages and images as well as videos of child sexual abuse.