A 4-year-old boy has died from the injuries he suffered after he fell out of the window of a residential building in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. According to a CBS News report, the fatal fall occurred at 3301 Farragut Road near the corner of New York Avenue. The child was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead as a result of serious head injuries.
Ongoing Investigation
Police said the boy fell from a fourth-floor window overlooking an alleyway. Neighbors ran to the scene and tried to help the child, who was bleeding on the concrete. Witnesses say when police got there, an officer carried the boy and ran down the block to place him in an ambulance. Our deepest condolences go out to the child’s family. They will be in our thoughts and prayers.
Police are looking into whether the apartment where the child lived had window guards. CBS reports that some of the windows in the building do have window guards, which are required in city apartments where children 10 years of age or younger reside. This is the sixth report of a child falling out of a window in New York just this year. CBS reports that the apartment building where the child lived has 18 open violations with the city, but none relating to window guards.
Window Guards Have Saved Lives
New York City health officials say the city’s window guard rule, which requires building owners to install window guards where children 10 years of age or younger live, has led to a dramatic reduction in injuries and fatalities. Before the rule was adopted in 1976, dozens of young children would fall from windows as they were propped open especially in the summer months. A study showed that 201 children fell to their death between 1965 and 1969 during the warm months (May-September). Of these 123 deaths or 61% were falls from windows. A large number of those incidents occurred in low-income neighborhoods with poor housing quality in Bronx and Manhattan.
Reuters reports that in 1972, the NYC Health Department launched a pilot program in the Bronx to distribute free window guards, log window falls and increase awareness about this safety issue through radio and television ads. Following this campaign, window falls decreased by about 40% and the program expanded citywide through 1975. The city’s window guard rule went into effect in 1976. Window falls declined from 217 in 1976 to nine in 2016 and window fall deaths decreased from 24 to two during this same period.
In spite of such progress, we still see an unacceptable number of window falls and fatalities involving children falling from windows in New York City, primarily because of negligence (carelessness) on the part of property owners, managers and other responsible parties. If a landlord (building owner) refuses to install window guards, New Yorkers can call 311 and the Department of Health will make sure the landlord complies.
Window guards approved by the Health Department must be properly installed according to specifications in all windows, including bathroom windows, except any window providing access to fire escapes. If a property owner or property manager is negligent (careless) in this regard, he or she can be held financially responsible for any accidents or injuries that occur due to the lack of a window guard.
Premises Liability Issues
There are several parties who may be held liable for falls from windows. Building owners who have a responsibility to install proper guards can be held liable for their failure to do so. Owners of apartments, condos, hotels and homes can be held accountable for accidents that occur on their premises. When such an accident occurs due to a defective window, screen or guard, the manufacturer, distributor or seller of a window, screen or guard can also be held accountable.
Injured victims in such cases can seek compensation for damages including, but not limited to, medical expenses, hospitalization, rehabilitation, permanent injuries, disabilities, past and future pain and suffering, etc. If you have lost a loved one in such an accident, you may also be able to pursue a wrongful death claim against the at-fault parties.
Compensation for Victims
If your child has suffered fall-related injuries due to someone else’s negligence (carelessness), the experienced New York personal injury attorneys with the Law Offices of Kenneth A. Wilhelm can help you better understand your legal rights and options, and also fight hard to recover just compensation for you. Our firm recovered $1,100,000 as a total payout for a child who fell from a window. The landlord (building owner) in that case had not installed a window guard as required under the law. Also, one of our clients obtained a verdict for $43,940,000 and another of our clients got a verdict for $23,500,000, both in medical malpractice cases.
Please contact us TOLL FREE 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-WORK-4-YOU (1-800-967-5496). WE CAN EVEN COME TO YOU. There is no attorneys’ fee unless we recover money for you. We can also help with personal injury, lead poisoning and medical malpractice cases including, brachial plexus palsy (Erb’s palsy) and cerebral palsy cases in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or Florida. If you have been seriously injured in any of the 50 U.S. states, please call us and we will try to help you with your case.
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Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/boy-falls-from-4th-floor-window-east-flatbush-brooklyn/