Child Injury Lawyer Blog
By Steven R. Smith, Attorney and David Wolf, Attorney
Published by Child Injury Lawyer Network
In South Glens Falls, New York, a horrific event unravelled right before the eyes of children, adults, and bystanders. During a 25 MPH wind gust, a bounce house lifted off the ground with three children inside. The bounce house was lifed 50 feet into the air. Serious personal injuries resulted from this incident. The children were taken to Albany Medical Center for treatment. It was reported that the bounce house was distributed as a Little Tikes bounce house. You can read more about this story at B Bounce House Lifts in the Air and Causes Serious Personal Injuries in New York.
In New York and other States, parents rely on family members, friends, neighbors, and others to serve as babysitters. While most babysitters are very caring individuals, there are some babysitters out there who lack the training, experience, personality, responsibility, and / or temperament to effectively serve, work, or volunteer as a babysitter. While it is often times helpful to do a background check on a babysitter, this is not always practical and many parents lack the funds or know how in conducting a background search on the babysitter. Some babysitters may have a clean criminal record but still present a danger to the child entrusted to the babysitter’s care. When the actions or inactions of a babysitter results in a the harm or injury to a child, there may be legal ramifications to the incident:
Children are often times injured on playgrounds at schools, day care centers, community associations, counties, cities, and other locations. When a child suffers an injury at a playground, there may be a civil claim or case for the personal injuries suffered by the child. Some child personal injuries that take place on a playground center are actionable due to the negligence of the school, day care center, property owner, adult supervisors, and / or the manufacturer of the playground equipment. Of course, there are some risks with any playground center; however, if an injury resulted from a dangerous design or defect, improper maintenance, or improper supervision, then a civil action or claim may be warranted to pursue damages and compensation for the child’s injuries.
In New York and other States, hazing is a tradition or problem that continues to victimize children in elementary school, middle school, and high school. In many instances, the tradition or initiation of hazing goes unpublished and there is a degree of tolerance for the bad acts of members, athletes, or students who commit these bad acts. Many schools have anti-hazing policies and procedures in place. The enforcement of these policies and procedures is not so easy and it a challenge to spot hazing activities and to punish the wrongdoers.
In Monroe County (North Greece) New York, a child injury was reported at the YMCA located on Long Pond Road. Fire fighters / paramedics with Monroe County EMS responded to the YMCA and reported that a child was in a crawl tube with a neck injury. The story was posted on the site Monroe County Fire Wire which is a website owned and managed by Scott Ellman who is a firefighter with the Brighton Fire District. The website provides good public service information to residents served by hard working men and women who work as firefighters and paramedics in the area. See 
According to police, an investigation of an alleged sex offense at a privately run New York day care center has led to criminal charges against a 15-year-old. Chief Roland Nenni said that the youth was charged with first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. The alleged incident occurred at the day care center on East Park Street in Orleans County within the past year. The investigation was completed with the help of the Orleans County District Attorney’s Office, the state of Office of Children and Family Services and the Justice for Children Advocacy Center. No information about the perpetrators identity has been released due to his status as a juvenile offender, said Nenni.
Kristal Khan, a babysitter from Queens, New York, ran an unlicensed day care center out of her home. She is accused of becoming extremely drowsy and falling asleep after drinking NyQuil cold medicine while babysitting 11-month-old James Farrior III on June 15, 2009. James allegedly fell head first into a mop bucket full of water and drowned. Kahn is accused of not waking up because she was in a cold medicine-induced sleep when James fell into the bucket full of water in Kahn’s Richmond Hill home. Kahn is being tried on reckless assault charges and could face up to four years in prison if convicted. More troubling is Kahn’s emotional state or, better put, lack thereof. Prosecutor Leigh Bishop stated the state will produce witnesses, firefighters and police who will testify that Kahn was “calm and without emotion” in her statements after the incident. NYPD Detective Brian Simonsen testified that Kahn showed no emotion was neither sad nor frantic when she gave her written statement a mere 2 hours after the death. For more details on this case and to see a video of Kahn please see D