A few weeks ago I posted an item marking National Window Safety Week. This weekend brought a sad reminder of why this issue is so important. As The Oregonian reports, citing Tualatin Valley first responders, “a two-year-old Tigard girl was taken to an area hospital Saturday night after she fell from a second-story window at her home.”
The newspaper reports that the girl was conscious when found by emergency services personnel, but offers no other updates on her condition or the nature and extent of her injuries. The injured Oregon child was transported by ambulance to a local hospital, the paper notes.
In a further reminder of the importance of this issue – and why all adults need to be aware of open windows, or windows with inadequate screens – the newspaper goes on to note that “a 3-year-old Clackamas girl broke her elbow” in a similar recent fall. It adds that experts say 70 percent of all injuries to children from window falls happen between noon and early evening, when warm weather is apt to draw children closer to open windows.
All parents live in fear of injuries to Oregon children such as this. Window falls are doubly tragic because of the damage they can do, and because, in most cases, they are so easily preventable. A Portland-area child injury attorney can help families searching for answers, and justice, in the wake of an Oregon window fall accident. The best solution by far, however, is for all adults to take care that windows are properly child-proofed, and that children, especially toddlers, are monitored at all times when they are anywhere close to a potentially dangerous window.
The Oregonian: Tigard girl falls from second-story window