Child Injury Lawyer Blog
By Steven Smith, Attorney David Wolf, Attorney
Published by Child Injury Lawyer Network
In Nassau County, New York and other cities throughout the State, there are holiday festivals and celebrations. Grandparents, parents, and children celebrate the holidays together with food, song and dance. A good time is expected by all. Unfortunately, holiday gatherings are some times the site of unexpected tragedy, injuries to children and in the most tragic cases death. A 76 year old man lost control of his 2007 BMW X3 and crashed into a Channukah Wonderland party in commercial area of Woodmere, New York. A total of 14 people were injured including a child under the age of 2. The accident victims were taken to three local hospitals for evaluation and treatment. The BMW at issue was reported to be registered to Theodore Saretsky, a local psychiatrist. A local religious leader, Rabbi Heshy Blumstein of Young Israel of Hewett and his wife, Mimi, visited some of the injured at Winthrop hospital.
For decades, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has warned about the dangers of crib meshing. Between 1978 and 1985 when crib meshing was more common, CPSC records document 15 deaths. While deaths related to meshing have fallen over the years, about 50 babies die annually due to defectively designed cribs. Just two months ago, the CPSC announced the recall of 600,000 drop side cribs manufactured by Delta Enterprise Corp. after the death of an 8-month-old baby who suffocated when the drop side of his crib detached. The recall announcement is available at the CPSC’s website at 
Are Day Care Centers in Maine required to carry liability insurance? The simple answer to this important question is Yes. Liability insurance will cover medical bills and the pain and suffering of an injured child that result from the negligence or lack of supervision of the day care facility and its employees. The Maine Department of Heath and Human Services (DHHS) requires that day care centers have liability insurance in place of at least $100,000. There are some exception for this requirement if a person is using his or her own home for a day care program. Most day care centers are operated as a business outside of one’s home. A children’s day care facility or center is defined as a house or other place in which a person carries out a regular program for consideration (i.e. payment, money) for any part of the day for the care, protection, and supervision of three or more children under the age of 13 years of age.
Winter storms create driving hazards for drivers across the United States including those in Arkansas. In Central Arkansas, freezing drizzle recently resulted in a traffic death and the closure of several school districts.
Teenagers like to have fun. Sometimes teenage fun is a prank on a friend, neighbor, or strangers. Pranks like throwing fruit, vegetables, rocks, eggs, and litter can literally lead to serious injuries and death. The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch published a very good article on this topic. The article cited several instances where a teenager, who thought he or she was playing an innocent or not so innocent prank, was seriously injured or shot by a person who was not in on the joke or prank. A teenager with a prank in mind can often be mistaken for a dangerous intruder, burglar, or criminal. The following tragedies were reported:
The Associated Press reported a very good but sad story about the trafficking of children for slave and indentured servant type of labor in the United States. The children were reported to work day and night with little to no breaks and very poor wages. While many think that these arrangements only take place outside of the United States, there are numerous reports showing child labor and child labor trafficking as a real problem in California and other States in the United States. You can read the sad stories of some of these children at 
Nevada lawmakers are aiming at criminalizing text messaging while deriving. Seven states have taken the initiative and have out lawed text messaging while driving. Some other states outlaw text messaging for younger drivers.
A tragic death recently took place in New York City, New York when a 7 year old handicapped child (Chelsea Madonado) fell out of the 5th floor window of an apartment complex. The incident took place in the Bronx. Chelsea was blind in one eye and used a wheelchaiir. She was also autistic. There was some kind of a child protection guard in place on the lower part of the window. The news report at Fox News did not indicate if there was any safety device in place for the upper part of the window. Police and child welfare investigations will probably investigate the incident to determine the cause and preventability of such a tragedy. It is truly a tragedy for such a girl to have suffered such a death. Hopefully, the tragedy that took place in the Bronx will help other families and apartment complex owners more closely examine child safety measures that are in place for all children including but not limited to handicapped, autistic, blind and other challenged children.
In the Georgia and other states around the nation, there are negligence, liability, or fault laws in place. Some States have more favorable laws and rulings in place that others for children and families seeking compensation for personal injuries / wrongful death than others. A Georgia Court of Appeals decision in June 2008 ruled that the family of a child who drowned and died could not recover compensation from the apartment complex / property owner. The Georgia Court ruled in favor of the apartment complex owner since the Court determined that the child knew or should have known of the danger of the swimming pool when the child entered the apartment complex pool. The Georgia Court put the responsibility of the incident the child rather than the apartment complex. The ruling was made in the case – Rice v. Oaks Investors, II, Georgia Court of Appeals, A08A0434 (June, 26, 2008).