Concerns Over Window Guards in NYC after Children Fall

 A 5-year-old boy in the Bronx was critically injured and a 3-year-old boy in Harlem was killed after both children fell from windows in separate incidents over a period of a few days. According to reports in the New York Daily News, the 3-year-old child fell from the window in a building in the Harlem River II Houses on Frederick Douglass Boulevard. The boy died from his injuries.
The 5-year-old boy fell from a fifth-floor window and landed in an alleyway between two Bronx buildings, the Daily News reported. The child was rushed to a local hospital in cardiac arrest, but he is said to be in stable condition. Investigators do not believe that any railings or guards in the Bronx home protected the window. In the Harlem incident, a window guard was found on the ground next to the boy’s body, but it is not clear if it was properly installed.

The Danger of Window Falls
According to data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), falls from windows result in about eight deaths each year to children 5 years old and younger. The agency also estimates that about 3,300 children ages 5 and younger are treated each year in U.S. hospital emergency departments. On average, one of three children, or about 34 percent, required hospitalization after falling from a window. These types of injuries and in some incidents, fatalities, tend to occur when children push themselves against window screens or climb onto furniture located next to an open window. A majority of these incidents happen during the spring and summer months.
NYC Window Guard Laws
Each year, young children are either severely injured or killed in falls from unguarded windows. These are certainly preventable statistics. In New York City, homeowners may have a responsibility to ensure that window guards are property installed. Local authorities have the authority to issue violations for failure to install proper window guards.
The window guard law also requires owners of buildings to send an annual notice to tenants of multiple dwellings to determine if window guards are required. Property owners and/or property managers must provide and install approved guards on all windows including those on first floor bathrooms and windows leading onto a balcony or terrace in an apartment where a child 10 years of age or younger resides, and in each common area window, if any, in such buildings.
If tenants or building occupants want window guards for any reason, even if there are no children 10 years of age or younger, the tenant may request the window guards in writing and the landlord are required to install them. For example, grandparents who have visiting children, parents who share custody or occupants who provide childcare services, and others may wish to request window guards, even though they may not have a child permanently living with them.
Window guards approved by the NYC Department of Health (DOH) must be properly installed according to specifications in all windows, including bathroom windows, except any window providing access to fire escapes. For buildings with fire escapes above the first and ground floors, but none below, one window must be left unguarded to allow for a secondary exit from the apartment under NYC Building department rule 4.10. If a property owner or property manager is negligent 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. Property owners and/or property managers 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 may 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, 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 in that case had not installed a window guard as required under the law. We also recovered $450,000 for a child who fell from a window.
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 cases in 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.
Other TOLL FREE phone numbers for us are:
1-800-RADIO-LAW, 1-888-WYPADEK, OR 1-800-LAS-LEYES
Please visit us at: www.WORK4YOULAW.com
Sources: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/manhattan/boy-3-falls-death-13th-story-window-harlem-article-1.2698031
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/bronx-boy-5-badly-hurt-surviving-5-floor-fall-article-1.2700590