PERSONAL INJURY BLOG

At Halloween, similar injuries to children happen every year: burn injuries that are the result of flammable costumes; slip and falls on neighborhood sidewalks from poorly maintained roads and ill-fitting costumes that drag on the ground; pedestrian accidents that lead to injury and wrongful death are also common. These can arise from negligent drivers who do not see children in dark costumes and excited children who do see cars because of poor visibility from costume masks. Since most trick-or-treating takes place near dusk or just after dark, the dangers are exacerbated by what may be inadequate street lighting. When streets are lined with trick-or-treaters, drivers must take extreme precaution to avoid causing a Halloween tragedy.  

Since California is so densely populated and so spread out with suburbs and track homes dotting the landscape, neighborhoods will be filled with young children looking for candy at the same time that commuters will be returning home from work. The combination can be risky. Safety precautions when crossing streets should be adhered to even more vigorously during Halloween in Southern California.  

Kids aren’t the only people at risk of Halloween-related tragedy. Candles used to illuminate jack-o-lanterns and other festive décor are often the cause of house fires. Children and pets can easily knock such candles over.  Additionally, electrical decorations and outdoor holiday lights often overburden electrical strips and lead to fires. This can put all members of a family at risk.  

For tips on how to stay safe this Halloween, see the Consumer Protection Safety Commission’s website: http://www.cpsc.gov/

Bumbo baby chairs were recalled in the early weeks of August due to reports of the potential for injury to more children. The South African company that makes the chairsand the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled nearly 4 million of the seats after the number of injuries associated with the chairs became particularly alarming. According to a report in the US News and World Report, since 2007, there have been more than 84 babies who fell from the seats. 21 infants suffered skull fractures (http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/08/16/bumbo-recall-shows-how-companies-deal-with-faulty-products?s_cid=rss:bumbo-recall-shows-how-companies-deal-with-faulty-products).  Some experts are wondering if the company did all it could to assure parents that their children were safe. The same question can be asked of all companies that make products for children.

The company originally recalled 1 million of their seats back in 2007 and began issuing greater safety warnings about the proper use of the Bumbo chair. The main issue revolves around the misuse of the chair. If it is used on a raised surface like a countertop or table, a child can fall out and suffer head trauma. Despite the "WARNING" that appears on the seat which reads "Never use on a raised surface. Never use as a car seat or bath seat. Designed for floor level use only. Never leave your baby unattended as the seat is not designed to be totally restrictive and may not prevent release of your baby in the event of vigorous movement." Regardless of those warnings, five years later, children continue to be harmed.Thus, the latest recall.

Many parents and their babies use the product safely—profits are in the tens of millions of dollars for Bumbo International—but the company is issuing a restraint device that must be put in the chair. It is a seatbelt that is supposed to prevent a baby from falling out. Since the vast majority of these chairs are used safely, does the company bear any responsibility especially when the children who were injured were placed in dangerous circumstances? The injured children fell when the chair was placed on an elevated surface.  The warnings, apparently, were not enough. 

What else could the company have done?

Five years ago personal injury and child safety lawyers brought a suit against Bumbo asking that the company insert a safety harness. Instead, the company re-emphasized the safety warnings, but now they have conceded and the safety belts will be included. Shouldn’t they have included the seat belts much earlier? 

What should a company do when their products are misused and lead to injuries? This an extremely difficult question to answer because the warnings should be adequate for most reasonable people. If a company has warned of hazards and they provide a relatively safe product while emphasizing that the product must be used correctly, that might be enough to protect the company from liability suits and may be enough to provide safety to consumers. But when the product is made for children, the stakes are higher. A company, like Bumbo, faces a public relations nightmare if they appear to disregard the safety of children. Public distrust beswift if child safety is not paramount. 

Mattel recalled hundreds of thousands of toys that were painted with toxic paint in 2007. That same year, Graco and Simplicity cribs were recalled after they led to the death of several infants. As recently as 2011, jogging strollers from a major manufacturer were recalled because of a choking hazard. As is the case with many products, until they are used en-masse, no one can say for certain that they are safe. 

Perhaps most important when a product for toddlers and babies is deemed unsafe is the speed with which the company responds to complaints and reports of injuries. Mike Rozembajgier, an expert on recalled products atStericycleExpertRecall, says “Speed is a necessary component” of responding to consumer complaints, especially when toddlers and babies are being harmed. “But it’s also important that companies get the fix right” (http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2012/0815/Bumbo-baby-seats-unsafe-at-any-height). 

Whether flammable pajamas, car seats that cannot be installed correctly, or toys that have been manufactured using unsafe materials, children face a host of unexpected risks. Companies, of course, must do all that they can to ensure safety but at some point the quest for profit must trump safety.  In addition to avoiding numerous lawsuits related to toddler and baby injuries, Bumbo International may have saved their public image by issuing a recall.  

LOS ANGELES—For most children and teens, playing soccer, basketball, baseball, football or participating in another athletic experience leads to a lifetime of memories. Most of the time, these are fond memories. However, in recent years, the number of children’s sports injurieshas gone up dramatically. Furthermore, in a recent report by the University of North Carolina’s National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research, we learn that 1990 is the only year between 1931 and 2009 that a fatal injury did not occur at some level of high school, college or professional football  (http://www.unc.edu/depts/nccsi/2010Allsport.pdf).  In that nearly eighty year span, one family each year had to confront the pain of a preventable or wrongful death.  Football is not the only athletic activity that leads to death or catastrophic injury, however. 

In 2008, Lauren Chang was killed performing a cheerleading maneuver. Before her, in 2005, Ashley Burns also died as a direct result of a cheerleading accident (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/cheerleader-dies/story?id=4693144). For many girls, cheerleading results in paralysis, concussion, broken bones, and other impacts that are more difficult to quantify.  

In 2004, 14 year-old Brittany Noffke fell while practicing a cheerleading maneuver at her Wisconsin high school. She suffered a skull fracture, serious concussion, and brain damage. The physical pain healed after several months, but Brittany continued to struggle with debilitating anxiety and depression. The family’s medical bills also contributed to their eventual bankruptcy. Brittany and her family are not alone in the suffering they endured. 

Concussions for male and female athletes; ligament tears; spinal injuries; heat stroke; broken limbs and brain damage can all result from school sponsored sports, physical education classes and club activities including cheerleading and dance team participation. With the extensive information available, perhaps such injuries will begin to decrease in numbers. The efforts of certain organizations may be educating the public, the parents, the players, and the coaches involved.

Organizations like the Sports Medicine Center for Young Athletes at the Children’s Hospital of Oakland offer extensive information on how to prevent and treat child sports injuries (http://www.childrenshospitaloakland.org/healthcare/depts/sports_medicine.asp). However, the authorities have a major advantage if a personal injury suit is ever filed on behalf of a child. Even if the safety information is available, what is the motivation for school districts, youth sports leagues, and other such entities to prioritize safety? They are almost never held liable. 

The Noffke case is just one such instance where the injured teen was unable to getcompensation for injuries. Her case was dismissed. Wisconsin has a Recreational Immunity Law which protected the school district. Personal injury claims related to school sports injuries have recently been dismissed in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey.  The legal rationale is that players accept a certain level of risk when they participate in an athletic endeavor. However, where is the line drawn? At what point does risk become negligence or reckless behavior on the part of the guardians and authorities involved? Many NFL players are trying to answer this question with a massive lawsuit against the NFL. Of course NFL players accept a certain risk when they agree to play a game and get well-compensated for it. But at what point does an organization take responsibility for protecting its players? If school districts are almost always immune from paying damages, there seems to be little legal incentive to make sure players and performers participate safely. 

The vast majority of players and participants do not suffer catastrophic injuries as the result of participating in athletic events.  But there are cases throughout the country of children being pushed to try more dangerous cheerleading maneuvers, hit the ball farther, and increase their speed and size to inflict greater damage on their opponents. Furthermore, the injuries are happening to younger and younger children. 

The recent lawsuit filed on behalf of NFL players has brought increased scrutiny to the role of concussions in professional football. However, concussions are a significant problem in every contact sport and cheerleading. Furthermore, if a teen or young child suffers a concussion and continues to play in a game, the long term damage can be catastrophic. The American College of Sports Medicine and other concerned organizations report that each year 60, 000 high school athletes sustain a concussion (http://www.npr.org/2011/02/02/133437361/doctors-throw-flags-on-high-school-concussions). For pre-teens, the numbers may not be as high but the damage to a young brain can be even worse because their brains are still developing. Thankfully, national awareness may be leading to change. 

30 states have laws that make coaches bench players who have been injured or may have suffered a concussion. Now that there are laws specifically designed to protect young players, violations of those laws may lead to successful lawsuits that do a better job of holding authorities liable. No doubt, these lawsuits are on the horizon for a wide-variety of reasons. But one of the reasons may be that in a culture obsessed with winning, the short-term satisfaction of victory may lead to catastrophic injury if safety is not a priority. With increased emphasis on better performance, greater achievement, and winning at all costs, the team may win but individual children will continue to suffer.  

Most Los Angeles sexual abuse lawyers are familiar with sex abuse cases involving day care centers or schools. A woman in Orange County, Florida recently filed a sexual abuse lawsuit against her child's daycare center.

According to the lawsuit, the child was 6 at the time of the abuse. He was abused by another older child at the same center. According to the complaint, when the mother picked up her child at the center one day, he told her that he had been molested by another boy. This was not the first time this had happened. The abuse allegedly occurred at least 5 times.

The boy had to undergo therapy, and suffered severe emotional distress and anguish. The abuse took place in the playroom when the 2 boys constructed a fort. Inside the fort, the older boy had unrestricted and unsupervised access to the younger child. The older boy denies any sexual misconduct.

The mother has now filed a lawsuit against the day care center, accusing the center of negligence and misrepresentation. According to the mother, when she went to admit her child to the day care center, the facility owners informed her that they had closed-circuit cameras in every room in order to ensure the security of the children. However, they later found that none of the rooms had cameras installed.

In this case, the mother became aware of the abuse quickly. However, this doesn't often happen. Many times, children are too afraid to report the abuse to their parents, or believe that the abusive behavior is normal, and not out of the ordinary. In such cases, it falls back on parents to keep their eyes and ears open. Look for signs of abuse like bedwetting, thumb sucking, regression, and dropping school grades.

The risks of a child being involved in a pedestrian accident are much higher on Halloween than during any other night of the year.  This particular night every year, approximately 4,000 children between the age of five and 14 are injured in pedestrian accidents, compared to 1,000 children during the rest of the year. 

It's not just the fact that there are more numbers of enthusiastic little children on the streets.  It's also the fact that these children are in cumbersome costumes that can cause them to trip and fall while walking on a crosswalk, or prevent them from seeing the road clearly.  Besides, ornate masks and eye gear might obstruct visibility, preventing the child from noticing your car.  Driving in Los Angeles can be a challenge any day of the year, but Los Angeles child injury lawyers would encourage extra special care on Halloween.

Obviously, driving under the influence increases your risk of striking a little child.  Also, ensure that your attention is 100% focused on the road by switching off your cell phone.  Be prepared for little children darting from behind cars or at intersections. 

Parents can minimize the risks of an accident involving their little ones by making sure that they chaperone or escort their children on Halloween.   For very young kids, opt for a group celebration at a common venue instead.  Teach your child basic traffic safety rules, and avoid visiting busy streets.  Give your child a flashlight or glow stick to make him easily visible to drivers.  Keep the costume simple, and avoid long flowing gowns that can trip your child.  Avoid elaborate masks and huge hats that can reduce visibility.  Bright reflective costumes can make your child more visible to motorists.  If the costume is dark, add reflective strips to it.