Articles Posted in Injuries to Children

Officials with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently issued a statement saying there were over 2 million units of violative or dangerous toys seized last year.

These dangerous products never made it into children’s hands. Even with the good news, there were still some products that slipped through and wound up taking the lives of about 13 children. Thousands of kids are seriously injured each year by dangerous toys, clothing, bedding or other defective products marketed for use by children.

Our Fort Lauderdale defective products attorneys understand this is a very important time of year to be in-the-know when it comes to the latest product recalls from the CPSC. You never want to give a loved one, especially a child, a gift that comes with some serious risks for injury. Nor do you want to accept gifts and thereby unwittingly bring dangerous products into your home. It’s important for all Christmas shoppers to check out the latest recalls before hitting the stores and knocking out their holiday shopping. This list can help to save lives and prevent injuries.

Throughout the last 4 years, there have been about 8.5 million dangerous products stopped by officials. Close to 2,500 of these products were children’s toys. Still, 13 children died. When a product is seized, it’s confiscated by officials at the ports. The ones that sneak through make their way to stores and eventually into your home.

For this reason, officials are reminder consumers to remain vigilant when making toy purchases and to always keep safety at the top of your shopping list.

“Ultimately our goal is to protect our most vulnerable population – kids – and keep them safe this holiday season,” said Tenenbaum with the CPSC.

Latest Recalls:

-Izoard XP Bicycles Recalled by Wilier Triestina, serving up some serious fall hazards. Call (888) 849-7779 for information regarding a replacement fork.

-2011 Havoc Bicycles Recalls by Norco. These bikes can crack at the joint where the down tube meets the top tube. Call (800) 227-5579 for information on getting a replacement.

-Water Balz, Growing Skulls, H2O Orbs “Despicable Me” and Fabulous Flowers Toys Recalled By Dunecraft. There are marble-sized toys in these sets that can get stuck in a child’s esophagus if swallowed. Take from children and call (800) 306-4168 for a free replacement toy.

-Baby Jogger City Versa™ Strollers Recalled by City Versa Strollers. The frame on the stroller can lock and can collapse while being used. Call (877) 506-2213 for a free replacement stroller frame.

-Dream On Me Bath Seats Recalled. These seats can easily tip over and serve as a drowning hazard to children. If you have one of these seats, stop using it immediately and call (877) 201-4317 for a free replacement tub.

You can be Santa’s biggest helper by checking the CPSC Recall List and keeping defective products from finding their way under the Christmas tree. An informed consumer is a safe consumer. We wish you Happy Holidays!
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The 12-year-old daughter of Sen. Marco Rubio’s was involved in a golf cart accident over the weekend. Rubio was campaigning in the state with Mitt Romney. Just before 7:00 p.m. Romney’s campaign bus pulled over on the side of Interstate 4 between Land O’ Lakes and Kissimmee to drop off Rubio, according to The Washington Post. He caught a plane to go see his girl, who was in the Miami Children’s Hospital.

“While visiting with classmates, she was a passenger on a golf cart involved in a collision in a private gated community. She was airlifted to Miami Children’s Hospital with a head injury,” said Alex Conant, a spokesman for Rubio.

Our Port St. Lucie accident lawyers understand that about 40 percent of golf cart accidents happen because a passenger of the cart falls off. Many of these accidents involve young children, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). In addition to these kinds of accident, about 10 percent of them are the result of a rollover accidents. As a matter of fact, these accidents (rollover accidents) are about twice as likely to cause some serious injuries and hospital stays as other kinds of gold cart accidents.

Still, passenger ejection accidents are the most common. It’s usually the passenger, and not the driver, who is ejected because the driver not only has the steering wheel to hold on to, but they can also anticipate the turn.

With the lightweight frames of golf carts carried on small tires, these vehicles can be precariously unstable. They tip over easily and don’t have enough effective standard automobile safety features. In many of these cases, driver error is the cause of such accidents.

Golf carts don’t usually have seat belts either. They’re usually used on golf courses and don’t have belts so that users can enter and exit with ease. For this reason, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) doesn’t require any seat belts on these vehicles. Instead, they’re required to have handholds and body restraints to help to keep passengers in. This doesn’t always work though. One of the problems with them is that the handholds are located on the outboard edge of the seat. It doesn’t provide the leverage that a passenger needs to prevent an ejection.

Each year, there are close to 15,000 golf cart-related accidents that send people to the emergency room. This number is on the rise as the fun-to-drive carts grow more and more popular on our city’s streets.

It’s estimated that about 40 percent of these accidents involve a child who is under the age of 16.

“That’s a disproportionate amount of children, considering most golf carts are still used on golf courses by adults,” says Kristopher Seluga, a mechanical engineering and safety expert studying golf cart safety.
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Your child is more likely to be killed in a pedestrian accident during Halloween than during any other night out of the year. Giggling ghosts and goblins will be trick-or-treating in neighborhoods across the area. Because kids are focused on the fun and not on traffic safety, we’re reaching out to drivers and other members of the community to take the proper safety precautions to help to make sure that they stay safe. Nobody wants the hauntings of a serious accident, injury or fatality this holiday!

Our Fort Lauderdale car accident lawyers and officials with the Florida Department of Highway Safety (DHSMV) are here to make sure that everyone safe this All Hallow’s Eve. We’re here with a few safety tips for everyone in the community.

Safety Tips for Motorists:

-Stay alert and keep your attention on the road. You can expect a lot of pedestrian and bicyclist traffic on the night of the 31st.

-Remember that kids are going to be awfully excited and they’re going to want to go to as many houses as they can to get their paws on some real sweet treats. Be aware of children who may dart into the road to make that happen.

-Be especially careful where vehicles park alongside the road. Children are likely to pop out from in between vehicles and cross the street before looking both ways.

-Slow down and keep it calm. Give our children plenty of time to cross the street.

Tips for Parents and Guardians:

-Make sure your children’s costumes are lightly colored so that they’re clearly visible to motorists.

-When choosing a costume, choose one that doesn’t have loose ends that they could potentially trip over.

-“Decorate” your child’s costume and trick-or-treating candy bag with reflective tape to help motorists to see them better. Give all children a flashlight, too!

-Make sure that all trick-or-treaters, and even parents and other supervisors, are wearing well-fitting, sturdy shoes.

-Trick or treat in your own neighborhood. Go only to the homes of people you know.

-If your child is wearing a mask, you want to make sure that it’s not impairing their vision. If you need to, make the eye holes bigger or completely forgo the mask and go with face paint.

-Make sure that you review the importance of pedestrian safety with your child before hitting the neighborhood.

-Check all of the candy that they got on their trick-or-treating adventures before allowing them to dig in. Make sure that you toss out and goodies that appear to have been tampered with, are homemade or are open.

-Make sure that you choose a costume for your child that is flame retardant.

-When walking around the neighborhood, stay on sidewalks and cross the street only at street corners.

-Don’t go up to houses that don’t have their lights on.

-Avoid running across people’s yards.
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Go through any neighborhood in South Florida and you’re bound to see trampolines in the back yards of many houses. What you don’t commonly think about when seeing these trampolines are the dangers that accompany them.

According to NBC News, there were about 100,000 injuries reported in 2009. Because of all of these injuries, officials with the American Academy of Pediatrics recently issued a warning to parents and caregivers asking them to get rid of them. This even counts for the ones that come with the safety net surrounding — those are no safer! The only thing that these nets do for owners of trampolines is provide them with a false sense of security. The truth of the matter is that they’re no safer than the ones without them.

“Pediatricians need to actively discourage recreational trampoline use,” said LaBotz with the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Our Palm Beach child injury attorneys understand that these trampolines are a piece of equipment — not a toy! While officials are urging parents and caregivers to discard these devices, we understand that many will not. That’s why we’re here to help you to be aware of the risks and to urge you to take the proper safety precautions to help to reduce your risks for an accident.

According to National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, about 75 percent of injuries that happen on trampolines happen when there is more than one person jumping on it at a time. In these cases, it’s the smaller person who is jumping that is likely to be injured.

As a matter of fact, the young the child is the higher their risks are for an injury. Many of these injuries happen to the legs and spine and are most commonly fractures. For kids under the age of 6, close to 40 percent of the injuries that were taken to the emergency room were fractures.

When you take all age groups into account, sprains, contusions and sprains were the most common kinds of injuries. They actually accounted for about 40 percent of all trampoline injuries. They’re so bad though, that about 1 out of every 200 trampoline injuries results in some kind of permanent neurological damage.

Trampoline Safety Tips:

-Always keep them at ground level when possible. If a fall happens, you want it to be as short of a fall as possible.

-Avoid doing flips. When flips fail, your risks for a cervical spine injury skyrocket! Many of these kinds of injuries can result in permanent damage.

-Always supervise young children. This means to actually watch them and not to just stand close by.

-Don’t let outer netting substitute for adult supervision.

-Only allow one person to jump at a time.

-Clear the area around a trampoline.

-Trampolines that are used for a structured sports training program should always have appropriate supervision, coaching and safety measures.
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You know what you’re supposed to do when you get into your car: sit down and buckle up! Unfortunately, drivers aren’t buckling in and many of them aren’t buckling in their young children. That’s one of the main reasons why there are close to 150,000 children who find themselves in an emergency room every year because of car accidents.

Experts with the University of Michigan recently examined the issue. They looked into how often parents were improperly buckling in children or not buckling them in at all.

Our Fort Pierce injury lawyers understand that parents, guardians and childcare providers are the saving grace for these children in the event of a car accident. They need to make sure that their child passengers are properly buckled in during every car ride. Their bodies can’t sustain the impact of a car collision as well as an adult.

Officials with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) previously released new child car seat recommendations for adults to review and to practice. According to the recent study, which was posted in the American Journal or Preventative Medicine, illustrated that large numbers of parents and guardians probably never looked at this information.

Unfortunately, car accidents continue to be the number one cause of death for children who are under the age of 3. They can do nothing about it either as they rely on parents and guardians to properly buckle them in during every car ride.

Within the study, officials found that not many children stayed in a rear-facing car seat after the age of 1-years-old. According to the most recent recommendations from the NHTSA, a child should remain in this seat for as long as they meet the size and weight requirements set forth by the seat’s manufacturer. Researchers also found that less than 2 percent used a booster seat after the child turned 7-years-old. Again, children are suggested to stay in a booster seat until they can properly fit into an adult seat belt.

In the study, researchers looked at nearly 21,500 children who were riding in vehicles. They located these kids at fast food restaurants, at childcare centers, at gas stations and at other areas. They tracked what kind of family was in the vehicle and who all was buckled in.

The study concluded that as children aged, they were less likely to be buckled at all.

Our young passengers rely on us to keep them safe in the car. Make sure that all children are buckled in during every car ride. There’s never an excuse to improperly seat these fragile passengers!
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Every day, there are nearly 400 children under the age of 20 who are treated in emergency rooms across the United States as a result of unintentional poisonings, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In addition to these injuries, two kids are killed every day because of these same kinds of accidents. It’s not just household chemicals that parents have to be worried about any more. Nowadays, there are more and more products that can cause serious injuries to children in Riviera Beach and elsewhere.

To help to reduce the risks of poison-related child injury in Riviera Beach and elsewhere, the National Safety Council (NSC) is holding Poison Prevention Week through March 24. This nationwide campaign is designed to raise awareness about the dangers associated with many our common household products and medicines.

Our Riviera Beach injury lawyers would like to take this time to warn parents about the risks associated with dangerous chemicals and products. Children can be easily poisoned by pills, liquid medicines and even household cleaners. Fortunately, there are a few precautionary steps that parents and other adults can practice to help ensure that children cannot gain access to these items. As part of Poison Prevention Week, we are sharing these preventative steps with you and your family to help keep the kids in your household safe.

Unintentional poisoning is defined as the unsupervised consumption, excessive use or “overdose” of drugs, chemicals or exposure to environmental substances.

Some of the most common forms of poisons include over-the-counter medications, personal care products, prescriptions and cleaning products. Many of these items are found scattered throughout each of our homes. As a matter of fact, these items are so common that about 80 percent of poisoning incidents happen when a child swallows prescription medications or over-the-counter medicines when an adult is not supervising.

Tips to Help Prevent Accidental Poisonings Among Children:

-Keep your vitamins and your medicines out of reach and out of sight of children. This goes for prescription medicines and over-the-counter drugs as well.

-Never leave vitamins or medicines out. Always put them away right after you’re done using them. It’s important that you never leave them on the counter or anywhere a child can see/access.

-Explain to your children what medicine is and why you take it. Explain to them that they’re never to take medicine unless you give it to them. Reiterate that it’s not candy, nor does it taste like candy.

-When closing your medicines, always listen for the click indicating that the cap is locked shut.

-Inform guests of your rules regarding medicines and vitamins and ask that they follow the same rules to help keep children safe.
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Halloween is one of the most dangerous holidays of the year for small children, often leading to a trip to the emergency room. Not only are children at risk of a pedestrian accident in Pembroke Pines, but children can also sustain a burn injury from a flammable costume in Weston or a hand, eye or face injury from a defective costume accessory in Fort Pierce.

Our Margate child injury and accident lawyers want to remind parents, guardians and caregivers to talk to children about the dangers of Halloween before they head out this Monday to trick-or-treat.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at child pedestrian accidents on Halloween from 1975-1996. Researchers found that children between the ages of 5 and 14 were four times more likely to be hit by a motorist on Halloween from 4 to 10 p.m. than any other day of the year. From 1975-1996, there were a total of 89 child pedestrian deaths in this age group, averaging about four deaths each Halloween.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons found in a nine-year study looking at holiday-related child visits to the emergency room that Halloween was among the top three for child injuries needing medical attention. From 1997 to 2006, 17.6 percent of injuries on Halloween were to a child’s finger or hand. Of the injuries to this area on the body, over 30 percent were lacerations and roughly 20 percent were fractures. Of the children visiting a medical center or emergency room, over 30 percent were between the ages of 10 and 14.

Florida Highway Patrol offers these trick-or-treat tips for a safer Halloween:

-Expect a lot of foot traffic, even on the days preceding Halloween.

-Slow your speed, especially on streets with parked cars or in neighborhoods where lit porch lights are an indicator that trick-or-treaters are around.

-Children may be walking on roadways with no sidewalks or crosswalks, so be alert at all times.

-Dress children in bright costumes. Make sure dark costumes and treat bags have reflective tape on them.

-Encourage children to wear face paint rather than a mask. If a mask has to be worn with the costume, ensure that vision and hearing are not impaired in any way.

-Don’t allow children to wear costumes or footwear that are too long or big for them. Tripping can cause a severe puncture wound or broken bone from a fall accident.

-Be alert for “stranger danger” on Halloween night. Make children aware not to talk to strangers or take short cuts that stray away from a group, parent or guardian.

Other important Halloween safety tips:

-Keep sharp costume accessories or pumpkin carving tools away from small children at all times.

-Only use costumes that are flame-resistant or flame-retardant.

-Instruct children to accept candy only in sealed wrappers. Inspect all candy before it is consumed.

-Keep small children away from candle flames or lit jack-o-lanterns.

Ensure your child has a safe Halloween by setting ground rules and reviewing important safety concerns. Making children aware of the dangers is the first step in reducing the risk of injury to them and others.
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If you live in a big city, the opportunity to ride an all-terrain vehicle is probably few and far between. Yet, just a few minutes out of town, they remain a popular recreational activity. In other cases, they are used on the beach and even as part of some jobs. Tourists and residents of Florida may find themselves at risk of an ATV accident in Port St. Lucie if they lack the knowledge and experience needed to operate this four-wheeled machine. Or if rented or borrowed machines are not properly maintained.

TC Palm recently reported about the fatal ATV accident involving two riders from Port St. Lucie. According to St. Lucie County Fire District, the ATV ran into a truck that was parked on Christensen Road near Midway Road around 11:00 p.m. The driver of the ATV attempted to turn into a drive, hit a privately owned firetruck which caused the ATV to flip over. The passenger on the ATV was ejected from the vehicle and killed. The ATV driver is at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute in critical condition.

Fort Lauderdale injury lawyers know that Florida is full of scenic off-road riding trails and challenging mud bogs. But with the growing popularity of ATV’s in our state, riders need to be careful to avoid rollover accidents, collisions, or bumpy terrains that cause them to be thrown off the vehicle.

ATVSafety.gov reported 376 ATV-related fatalities in 2009, and another 131,900 injuries that were treated in hospital emergency rooms nationwide. For children under the age of 16, 16 percent of all ATV-related deaths were in this age group in 2009 with 61 reported fatalities. Florida reported 361 fatalities from 1982-2006 involving an ATV and though the data remains incomplete, it is estimated that another 86 ATV-related deaths occurred from 2007-2009 in our state. From 1982-2006, 29 percent of ATV-related deaths in Florida were children 15 and under.

Florida prohibits use of ATVs on paved roads and requires that vehicles must be titled if operated on public land.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission offers these common sense safety tips to ATV riders:

-Enroll in a training course. Riders can learn how to control ATVs in various situations with proper training in a hands-on course.

-Adult ATVs are meant for adults and should never be used by children under the age of 16.

-Riders should never drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

-Most ATVs are built for one person so carrying a passenger on a single-rider is never advised. Riding tandem with a passenger can occur on ATVs designed for two riders but passengers should be at least 12 years old.

-Protective equipment like gloves, helmets, boots and goggles can reduce the severity of injury sustained in a crash.

For a full list of riding trails in your area, visit atvflorida.com. But first, check out ATV Rider Course Enrollment before you ride.
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A woman and her son are lucky to be alive after being struck by a pickup truck crossing the street, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

In a previous post to our South Florida Injury Lawyers Blog, our Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyers reported that Florida is the most dangerous state for pedestrians.

The accident happened around 10 a.m. at the intersection of Northwest 19th Street and Northwest 29th Avenue. A young mother was pushing her toddler across the street in his stroller when the two were hit by the pickup. Both victims were taken to Broward General Medical Center. According to law enforcement, the victims were not in a crosswalk when they attempted to cross the street. The driver of the pickup was not speeding, stopped after the collision and was not cited.

Strollers are a means of transporting children quickly across pavement or hard-floor surfaces in stores. They are built to fold up easily, which exposes children to hinged parts that can cause injuries. Every year, more than 13,000 children younger than 3 are injured in stroller accidents.

A retrospective study on stroller injuries reviewed more than 65,000 stroller injuries reported between 1994 and 1998 by National Electronic Injury Surveillance System of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The study found the rate of injury was 184 per 100,000 children. Boys and girls were injured on an almost equal basis and the average age of those injured was 11 months. Most children are injured because they fall out of the stroller (76 percent), while a stroller tipping causes 11 percent of accidents. The remaining injuries were from the stroller collapsing or being hit by a motor vehicle. Head and facial injuries occur 87 percent of the time, followed distantly by bruises, lacerations, fractures and closed head injuries.

How to prevent stroller accidents:

-Statistics clearly show that falling out of strollers is the leading cause of injury in stroller accidents. Parents and caregivers need to securely fasten the stroller’s restraint system. Similar to car seats, the safety harness must be secured properly to keep the child in place. Some accidents happened because the safety harness wasn’t secured at all, or only the lap belt was used. To keep young children from sliding under the lap belt, the crotch strap needs to be secured.

-Young children like to move around, so they need to be watched at all times. Children have died from being strangled by the leg straps when they have slipped under the lap belt. Children have also died by suffocation after being incorrectly positioned in the stroller.

-Children should be removed from the stroller prior to going up and down stairs. Tragic accidents have occurred when strollers have been dropped or rolled down steps.

-Keep one hand on the stroller at all times and always use the brakes. Periodically check the brakes and moving parts to make sure they are in good working order.

-Know your stroller’s “pinching potential” points and make sure children don’t put their hands or fingers near these points. Never hang heavy bags or purses on the stroller handles — it could cause the stroller to tip backward.
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