Family and neighbors in Northwest Portland are breathing sighs of relief after a six-year-old boy survived a fall from a second story window without serious injury, according to television station KGW.
It goes without saying that an accident like this could have led to a far more serious Oregon child injury, and will have to serve as a wake-up call for both family members and for many people concerned with kids’ safety. As KGW notes, many parents can easily forget that screens are designed to keep bugs out but are not strong enough to stop even a small child from falling through them.
Teaching children the importance of safety around windows is as crucial as teaching them the dangers of electrical sockets. The link below to the Campaign to Stop Window Falls contains a number of simple safety tips. Many of these amount to basic common sense, such as the group’s admonition to “only allow windows to open 4 inches” by inserting a window stop or similar device into the window track, and a reminder to keep windows locked when they are closed.
According to KGW, “each year 50 children in Oregon are admitted to hospitals after falling out of second story windows.” Two children have died from such falls since 2009.
In the wake of an injury as a resulting from a window fall it is also important that parents speak with a Portland child injury attorney who can help them examine the particulars of the accident and the circumstances surrounding it. I often write about justice issues in this blog, but where children are concerned it is equally, if not more, important to ensure that dangerous situations that have already injured one child are not allowed to continue and to place more children in danger. An Oregon personal injury attorney can help parents improve unsafe situations in the hope of preventing future injuries.