Toddler Falls from Window of Cruise Ship, Raising Concerns About Cruise Ship Safety and Child Injuries
According to a recent article in Forbes, a fatal child injury occurred when a toddler fell from the 11th floor of a cruise ship window while the cruise ship was docked. As the article explains, details about the child death are not yet fully clear, but what we do know is that the child was in a “play area” of the cruise ship at the time she fell out of the window.
Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death for toddlers, as they are for the majority of the population under the age of 30, according to the National Safety Council. When it comes to toddlers, in particular, accidents involving falls are among the leading causes of death.
Falls are the leading cause of nonfatal injuries among kids under the age of 15. Every year, about three million kids seek treatment in emergency departments for serious fall-related injuries, and a total of about 50% of nonfatal injuries in toddlers result from falls.
Although areas where young children commonly play—such as playgrounds—have taken steps to prevent falls from recreational equipment, multi-story buildings and structures are not frequently constructed with kids’ safety in mind. As the article points out, we have relatively little data about cruise ship injuries in general, and even less information about child injuries onboard cruise ships. What we do know comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Injury Guide, which reports that 300 “overboard accidents” have occurred on cruise ships since 2000.
Getting the Facts About Accidental Child Injuries
Accidental injuries result in more than 12,000 deaths of children each year between the ages of 0 and 19, and more than nine million children suffer injuries that require treatment in emergency departments each year. The following are some additional key facts and figures about child injury from the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University:
- About 8,000 children are treated in emergency departments across the country each day for fall-related injuries;
- Bicycle-related injuries are a common cause of serious injury and death among young kids, accounting for about 100 fatalities and 254,000 nonfatal injuries every year;
- Drowning is the leading cause of death among children between the ages of 1 and 4, and most of these unintentional injuries happen in residential swimming pools or in open water; and
- Suffocation is the leading cause of death for kids under the age of 1.
Was your child injured because of another party’s negligence? You should discuss your case with a child injury lawyer.
