Posts Tagged ‘child injuries’
Backover Accidents Endanger Children
It is frightening to watch a driver back up toward a child at play. At least 50 children are victims of backover accidents each week, according to KidsandCars.org. More than 70 percent of backover accidents involve young children and a parent or a relative. Many of these car accidents occur right in home driveways.
As traumatic as backover accidents are, many injuries are preventable. Drivers can recognize the safety risk and make use of technology. Families can communicate and plan. Involve friends and family who visit and park at your home in this conversation. Before they arrive, suggest a safe parking space.
As a Massachusetts driver, you can help prevent backover accidents through a combination of steps. You can use a back-up camera. Stay aware of your blind zone. Near children, the most effective prevention may be getting out and walking around your vehicle. Make sure you have a clear path of travel and if you don’t, be patient. Stay where you are for an extra few minutes until the children have gone back inside.
For Families:
Comings and Goings. Start by keeping your family together when someone arrives and departs. Keep children inside and let them wave to the driver from the window. If children are outside, an adult should be outside supervising them. Gather together on the front steps or a safe place. Hold on basketball, bikes or riding toys until the person leaves. It’s hard for a young child to resist chasing a ball.
Driveway Barriers. Parents can keep traffic cones in the shed. Put the cones out in your driveway when you are concerned or to block delivery drivers from pulling. You can also look into portable neon driveway fencing products.
For Drivers:
Walk Around the Vehicle. Even if drivers have a back-up camera, walk around your vehicle. Check underneath your vehicle and observe if a child or anyone is nearby or may move into your path of travel (such as a child riding a bike or someone pushing a shopping cart).
Park Consistently. If you are a parent or live near children, park your vehicle in the same place in your driveway or garage each day. Be consistent with your approach. Whether you pull in or back into your driveway or garage, make sure children are in a safe place. If you are a parent, keep children in the backseat if you back in. Come to a complete stop, turn and check on your children in the backseat, then get out of the vehicle together.
Large Vehicles. Trucks, SUVs, RVs and vans are more likely to cause backover crashes, according to NHTSA. The taller the vehicle, the greater the driver’s blind zone.
Blind Zone. The blind zone is the area behind a vehicle which a driver can’t see. Whatever vehicle you drive, learn about your blind zone. Consumer Reports found small sedans usually have a 12 foot blind zone for the average driver. Midsized SUVs have an 18-foot blind zone, while large SUVs have 19 feet. Pick-up trucks have the largest blind zone among the passenger vehicles – 24 feet.
Back-up Cameras. As of May 2018, all new passenger cars, trucks, vans and other vehicles weighing less than 10,000 pounds have to be outfitted with rearview monitoring technology, according to Edmunds.com. If you are driving an older vehicle, you can install a back-up camera on your own – and it is an important tool which can save lives. Read “How to Add a Backup Camera to Your Car,” by Consumer Reports.
Bicycles and Pedestrians. Backover accidents can also injure adults, including cyclists and pedestrians. Look all around your vehicle before you pull out of a parking space. Be aware of different types of activities and movements in downtown and other business areas. When possible, avoid parking near crosswalks.
Parking Lot Crashes. In parking lots, pull into parking spaces whenever possible. Keep watch of pedestrians and shoppers when you pull out or back out of spaces. Set aside cell phones and do not drive when you are overfatigued.
Another note is right now, many Massachusetts grocery stores, retailers and restaurants are offering curbside pick-up services. While convenient, remember not every business is experienced with this. Drive into parking lots slowly and watch for curbside pick-up signs. If there are no signs, find a parking space and call the store. Always watch for pedestrians, who are also just figuring this all out.
Boston Car Accident Lawyers – Free Legal Consultation
At Breakstone, White & Gluck, our Boston car accident attorneys specialize in representing victims of car accidents and pedestrian accidents. We represent those injured across Massachusetts, from Boston and Cambridge to the North Shore to Quincy and the South Shore and Cape Cod.
For a free legal consultation, contact our attorneys at 800-379-1244 or 617-723-7676 or use our contact form.
Protecting Children from Backyard Injuries and Hazards in Massachusetts
It is important to maintain your yard and keep it safe at all times. But this summer, as Massachusetts recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, more people will likely spend more time at home. This means you must take extra care in protecting your home, your family and neighbors from common backyard injuries, such as falls, dog bite injuries and swimming pool accidents.
In Massachusetts, homeowners have a duty to make a reasonable effort to keep their property reasonably safe so lawful visitors are not injured. When a homeowner fails to maintain their property and someone is injured, this may result in a premises liability claim.
When children are involved, homeowners have a greater duty. Under attractive nuisance laws, property owners may be held liable if a young child is injured by an unsafe condition on their property, even if the child is trespassing. These laws recognize that children may not understand potential dangers or that they are trespassing.
Massachusetts Attractive Nuisance Law
M.G.L. c. 231, § 85Q states that a person who maintains an artificial condition upon his own land shall be liable for physical harm to children trespassing thereon under certain conditions.
A landowner can be held liable in part if they knew a child was likely to trespass or reasonably should have known, and if the landowner knew or reasonably should have known there was an unreasonable risk of death and serious bodily harm to children.
Protect Your Front and Backyard This Summer
Protect Your Pool
Property owners have a responsibility to lock and secure pools to prevent neighborhood children from falling in.
In Massachusetts, homeowners must enclose pools with fences which are a minimum of four feet and taller if necessary for safety. The fence should have a self-latching, self-closing gate and lock at least four feet off the ground. These requirements are meant to protect young children, as well as your lawful guests by slowing access down to your pool. A few steps you can take to secure your pool:
How old is your pool lock? Carefully inspect the integrity of your pool lock.
Inspect your fence. The Consumer Product Safety Commission published this pool safety guide on different types of fences and key specifications, such as how much space you should have between and under the fence panels. See page 6.
Consider a pool alarm. Your fence is your primary defense to keep young children out of your pool. Children can move quickly and drown silently, before you even know they have found their way into your pool. An alarm can help you respond quickly.
Think “layers of protection.” Planting large shrubs in front of your pool fence is one way to slow children down; another added benefit is children won’t be able to see the pool and are likely to forget about it.
At the end of the day: Cover your pool. Remove pool ladders and floats from the pool area and out of sight of children.
Restrain Your Dog
Young children are at risk for dog bite injuries if they wander onto a neighbor’s property.
As a dog owner, you have a responsibility to take care of your pet, including to feed it and make sure it gets proper exercise.
As a homeowner, you have a responsibility to restrain your dog. Under Massachusetts law, you may be held liable if your dog bites or attacks. Here are a few situations when homeowners may be liable for dog bite injuries.
First, you may be held liable if your dog bites a lawful visitor. You may also be held liable if you leave your dog alone outside and it runs off your property and injures a passerby.
Then there are young children. Too young to realize the consequences, they can wander onto your property without invitation and your dog may bite. You may not even see the child come onto your property. But this is another situation when a Massachusetts homeowner may be held liable for a child’s dog bite injuries.
Just like drownings, dog bites and attacks are a frightening and debilitating experience, for children as well as owners. Some describe it as the worst experience of their life. Many victims and loved ones suffer post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
What can you do to prevent a tragedy?
Invest in dog training. Hiring a trainer can help your dog master basic obedience skills.
Install a fence. Consider installing a regular fence around your yard. An invisible dog fence can be effective at keeping your dog on your property. However, it doesn’t prevent children from wandering onto your property. Fences can stop children or at least slow them down.
Remember you can’t predict how your dog will react. Many dog owners have said, “My dog is really good with kids,” just before the animal bites or attacks.
And the problem with young children in your neighborhood: a child may know you and your dog by name. They may routinely say hello when you walk your dog and have warm feelings about your pet. Your dog, however, may not feel or respond the same if the child approaches. If you have a dog, Breakstone, White & Gluck encourages you to secure and supervise your pet this summer. Remember, children are likely to be spending more time at home this summer and you may need to take additional steps.
If you have been injured, Breakstone, White & Gluck is experienced in representing young children and others after dog bites and attacks in Massachusetts. Please read our awards and settlements and contact us if we can assist you with a claim at 800-379-1244 or 617-723-7676.
$450,000 award: Child Suffers Facial Injury and Emotional Distress in Dog Bite Attack Details
$300,000 award: Elderly woman bitten by dog, which leads to infection, sepsis and wrongful death.
$150,000 award: Dog injures cyclist, causing bike crash and other injuries. Details
Use Your Backyard Shed
Pick up your yard each day. Pick up toys and bring in pool floats, accessories and towels so they don’t attract a child’s attention.
Certain toys, games and equipment should be used, then immediately locked away. These include portable pools.
To make this easier, keep a key to your backyard shed nearby at all times this summer. Put it in your cell phone case or on a lanyard around your neck so you can easily access your shed as often as you need.
Protect Your Backyard This Summer
2020 has been a challenging year. While we are all limited by Covid 19 this summer, these are steps we can all take to protect our families, neighbors and others from unnecessary injury, and to protect ourselves financially.
Free Legal Consultation – Boston Personal Injury Lawyers
At Breakstone, White & Gluck, our Boston personal injury lawyers specialize in premises liability claims, including those involving swimming pool accidents, dog bites injuries and child injuries. Learn more about our law firm: www.bwglaw.com.
Baby Carriers Are Latest Children’s Product Recall
Parents place a great deal of trust in baby carriers to support their children. However, you should now check yours because it may not be as safe as you think.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a Feb. 6th recall notice for about 14,000 Infantino baby carriers sold by Amazon and Target between Nov. 15 and Dec. 20, 2019. Because the recalls took place over the holiday season, parents could have purchased a baby carrier or received one as a holiday gift.
While no injuries have been reported, the buckles on the infant carriers can break, causing a child’s fall. Parents should stop using the front-facing baby carriers and request a free replacement.
The Infantino carriers have a black or gray body, with black straps, and a front pocket. Look for the code sewn inside the carrier. This is the place to start because baby carriers often look similar.
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Go Forward 4-in-1 Evolved Ergonomic Carrier |
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Go Forward 4-in-1 Evolved Ergonomic Carrier |
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Flip Front2back Carrier |
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Up Close Newborn Carrier |
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High Rate of Children’s Products Recalls
As you check if your baby carrier was recalled, look around your home for other children’s products, such as strollers, car seats, cribs and other baby furniture. Take a minute to visit the CPSC website and type in the product name. This is a good time of year to check children’s products because you may be using some of them more in the nice weather.
Children’s products have a high rate of recalls so it is best to check a few times of year and follow the news and the CPSC website. Manufacturers do not always contact parents directly and there are times parents may be using a hand-me-down recall product, making it harder to track product recalls or news about injuries.
But so far, 2020 has been a year to follow recall news. Just as the holiday season ended, a series of children’s product recalls began. On January 16th, the CPSC announced the recall of 2,000 “Baby Trend” strollers sold by Amazon and Target. Those too could drop children should the stroller hinge joints release and collapse under pressure.
Then on January 29th, the CPSC announced the recall of 165,000 infant sleepers from Summer Infant, Graco, Delta Enterprise Corp. and Evenflo. The inclined sleepers are the latest recalls in the wake of the Fisher-Price Rock ‘n Play, which was recalled in April 2019.
As authorities continue to investigate, families have reported more than 70 infant deaths in inclined infant sleepers. University of Arkansas researchers have studied these sleepers and recommended infants sleep on flat surfaces or less than a 10 degree incline if any. The Fisher-Price Rock ‘n Play and other sleepers placed children at a 30 degree incline, creating a risk for suffocation when infants attempted to turn.
Free Legal Consultation – Boston Product Liability Lawyer
Breakstone, White & Gluck has obtained record results for plaintiffs in Massachusetts cases involving personal injury, medical malpractice and product liability. If you or a loved one has been injured by an unsafe or defective product, our attorneys can advise you of your legal rights to seek compensation. For a free legal consultation, contact our product liability attorneys at 800-379-1244 or 617-723-7676 or use our contact form.