Falling Hazards that come in both adult and child sizes.
For one year old children, stairs are the number one cause of injury.
A slip and fall lawsuit involving an adult carrying a baby happens more often than you might expect, with wet slippery stairs because of a spill, or tripping on the way up or down thick carpeted stairs being among the major causes of such fall injuries.
It is said that adults carrying children have falls that result in greater injuries to the child than if the child were to fall alone.
Sometimes both parent and child fall together and so the slip and fall personal injury to a child lawsuit may also have resulted in a personal injury to the parent.
Here are some typical fact patterns involving falls to children that may result in a personal injury claim or lawsuit:
A day care uses a high baby changing table; an unstable or unsafe changing table.
The best practice is to change a baby’s diaper on the floor, but if a changing table is improperly secured or the infant is permitted too much mobility an accident may occur.
A low piece of furniture is placed in a room so close to another much higher piece of furniture that the child can climb from one to other and then not be able to reverse the process and get down. The best practice is to recognize the danger and to keep a reasonably safe distance between such furniture pieces, to avoid the child being injured.
Electrical cords should be removed from the area, they pose a trip and fall hazard to children and of course they have the double danger of being electrical as well.
Attractive items on a shelf, table, or on the stairs that may cause the baby to reach father, become unbalanced, or to climb up and fall out of a crib and become hurt should be removed.
Children may fall and be seriously injured because of the negligence of landlords, day care centers, school playgrounds, hotel maintenance, or at a friend’s home ( which may be covered by homeowner’s insurance).
Children do not only fall down, they may fall into. Fall into a glass door, into an aquarium or a high bookcase. These hazards may pose liability for negligence and responsibility for a child’s personal injury claim even if the concern was not immediately obvious.
