17,000+ Children Injured by Strollers and Carriers Each Year

Most of us understand that baby strollers and other types of baby carriers are designed to transport children safely. But as our Delray Beach personal injury lawyers at the Law Offices of Aronberg & Aronberg now know, a recently-released study has indicated that an average of over 17,000 youngsters are injured each year by strollers and baby carriers.

The research published in the American Pediatrics journal noted that these types of injuries—the consequence of falls from the carrier or tip-overs of the strollers—constitute notable injuries for the demographic of children five years old or below. The study spanned 1990-2010 and found that while the average number of annual injuries was 17,187, there were an estimated 360,937 injuries throughout the period.

The study was able to breakdown information based on injuries from the different types of transport products. For injuries resulting from use of strollers, as our Delray Beach personal injury lawyers have learned, the injured children were most frequently (by a slight margin) male and under a year old. Additionally, the face and head were the most common places of injury, leading to soft tissue and traumatic brain injuries and concussions —serious, potentially debilitating wounds. For injuries from the use of baby carriers, the victims were also mostly male under the age of one year old, and the types of injuries were also most commonly soft tissue and traumatic brain injuries and concussions resulting from injuries to the face and head. As our personal injury lawyers know, it is worth noting that carrier-related injuries led to more hospitalizations than did injuries from strollers (perhaps because the fall from a baby carrier is longer than is a fall from a stroller, the latter being closer to the ground).

When products which are designed and marketed as means of keeping our children safe wind up harming our children, we have methods of recourse. If a product defect is the cause of the injury, a family can bring a claim and/or lawsuit against the manufacturer, wholesaler, and/or retailer of the product, claiming as damages the medical costs, value of the pain and suffering, etc. Our personal injury lawyers want to remind everybody, though, that a successful claim almost always needs to arise from an injury which occurred through normal or reasonable use of the product. For example, if a parent continued to use a stroller which had 2 of its 3 wheels detached, and the child was injured as a result of a tip-over, the parents likely would not have a claim as they would have knowingly used the product in a dangerous, unreasonable manner. Similarly, a parent who carries a child in a baby carrier with one of the two required straps detached also likely would not have recourse if the child were to fall out of the carrier, as the carrier would not have been used in accordance with reasonable, normal, expected use of the product.

On a positive note, the study found that “the rate of stroller and carrier-related injuries decreased significantly during the period.” That said, the overall decline in injuries might be cold comfort to families of those roughly 17,000 children who are injured in these sorts of accidents every year.

If your child has been injured in the normal course of being transported in a baby carrier or stroller, make sure to seek medical attention for your youngster immediately. Also be sure to retain the product and receipt (if you still have it), and then contact a skilled personal injury attorney who can help you seek the compensation you and your family deserve. To schedule a free consultation with one of our personal injury lawyers at the Law Offices of Aronberg & Aronberg, please contact us by calling 561-266-9191 or by e-mailing daronberg@build.simple.biz. We look forward to assisting you.

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