Preventing Personal Injury: 4 Huge Summer Hazards for Kids

Summer is usually a fun time as families head out on trips and kids kick back and enjoy their time away from school. Unfortunately, as it heats up in Charleston, personal injury risk rises, too. Although most parents exercise caution anyway, sometimes accidents happen. According to ABC News, more than 12,000 kids in the United States die every year due to unintentional accidents. That works out to about 33 every day. Another 9.2 million children require hospitalization after an accident every year as well. Here's a look at four of the things that send kids to the hospital the most during summer.

1. Falls

The CDC reports that falls are the leading cause of childhood injury, resulting in 8,000 hospitalizations daily. Although most parents would expect them to come from known dangers, like trampolines, they usually happen in a seemingly safe place, like a playground. As a safer option, kids should only play in a areas that have a thick layer of mulch or shredded rubber, versus grass or cement.

2. Bicycle Injuries

Every year, more than 10,000 kids are hospitalized for bicycle injuries and another 300,000 have to visit the emergency room. Children, adolescents, and young adults are the most-likely to be injured, but those between 15 and 24 are more likely to die from their injuries. In these cases, the leading culprit is traumatic brain injury, which can usually be prevented by wearing a helmet.

3. Motorized Vehicle Accidents

A lot of kids are being injured by powered ride-on toys, ATVs, golf carts, and the like. Parents expect them to be safe and slow, but they're actually high-powered. The Mayo Clinic warns parents that children are more-likely to die or be hospitalized in an incident involving an ATV than a bicycle. Personal injury is seen when kids ride alone, when small children are permitted to ride with older ones, and also when kids go for a ride with an adult, simply because they're not able to maneuver as well. The bottom line is that there's no safe way for a child to ride an ATV, so it's best to skip this activity altogether until the child is skilled enough to ride alone. This is often decided by state law, with some regions disallowing it until adulthood without proper training.

4. Drownings

The CDC reports that children between the ages of one and four are more-likely to drown than any other age group. For kids 1-14, it's the second-greatest cause of death, right after car accidents. To reduce the risk, a fence should be installed around all pools and everyone should know how to swim. Adults and older children should also have CPR training and children should always have supervision while around the water.

Charleston Personal Injury Attorney

If your child has been injured due to someone else's negligence you may be entitled to compensation to assist with medical bills and other expenses that have resulted from the incident. Please contact us for a no-obligation consultation by calling 1(800)610-2546.