Georgia Injury Law Blog
A 21-month-old toddler, who sustained serious injuries when she was caught in a car power window, is recovering from injuries. The accident occurred last Friday when the child was alone in the family car with her three-year-old brother. The child’s neck became trapped in the power window when it suddenly became activated. She was initially unresponsive, and had to be rushed to the Barrow Regional Medical Center, and later to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. She is now expected to make a full recovery.
Fortunately, this horrible incident is like to have a happy ending. Injuries from activated power windows are not exactly unheard of. According to the NHTSA, every year, approximately 6 children die from power window accidents, and close to 2,000 children are injured.
Last year, Kidsandcars.org had conducted a survey that showed that power window accidents and injuries may be far more common than the NHTSA believes. The surveyors asked participants about whether they had ever caused injuries to anyone by activating a power window. Up to 6% of the participants admitted that they had indeed injured another person by activating a power window. According to Kidsandcars.org, when you translate those statistics into the general population in the United States, it works out to approximately 13.6 million power window-related injuries every year.
Even if you don’t agree with those statistics and allow room for error and exaggeration, you have to admit that there are likely millions of such incidents every year that are going overlooked. Part of the problem with the way in which the NHTSA studies power window-related accidents, is the fact that the agency only considers those injuries that have been treated in emergency rooms. It is highly likely that the majority of power window-related accidents and injuries end in the victim being rushed not to the emergency room, but to the family doctor.
The biggest step that parents can take to prevent such injuries is to make sure that little children are never left alone in a vehicle, even for a few seconds.
The Atlanta personal injury lawyers at the Katz Personal Injury Lawyers represent injured victims of defective products around Georgia.