Charleston Lawyers: Child Safety
From the day you bring them home from the hospital, your children are at high risk for accidental injury and wrongful death.
No one gets through childhood without a few bumps and bruises, but attention to child safety can prevent common accidents from turning into life-changing personal injuries. Please take a few moments to review the following accident prevention tips, courtesy of the attorneys of Freeman & Chiartas.
Infant and Toddler Injury Prevention Make sure that your child's car seat meets current safety standards and that it is properly installed in your vehicle. Remember, infants should be in rear-facing car seats until they are 1 year old and weigh at least 20 pounds. To find out if your child's care seat is the subject of a current product recall, visit the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Web site. Practice Area
Sports Injury Prevention Personal safety devices including helmets and elbow, knee and wrist guards can cushion a fall when children are biking, skateboarding or in-line skating. Make sure your child knows the rules of the road before letting them go out onto the pavement. For field games, make sure you check the playing surface for hazards before the game begins.
Teen Car Accident Prevention Visit the West Virginia Department of Transportation Web site to learn about our state's graduated driver's license program. Be sure to talk to your teens about drinking and driving, as well as the dangers of talking on a cell phone while driving, getting distracted or having too many people in a car.
Swimming Pool Injury Prevention Don't let your child visit a public or private swimming pool without being accompanied by a responsible person who knows how to swim. Go over the pool rules. Swim with a buddy. Non-swimmers should only use Coast Guard-approved personal flotation devices. Pool toys are a drowning risk for non-swimmers.
Gun Accident Prevention Until your children are old enough to understand the risks associated with them and have been properly trained, you should keep guns unloaded and safely locked away from children. Be sure to store ammunition in a separate, locked container. Teach children to never touch or to play with a gun at their home or at the home of a relative or friend without proper supervision. Teach them to always assume that a gun is loaded and never point one at a friend or relative.
Child Abuse Prevention Talk to your children about the good and bad kinds of touching. Let them know they should always tell you if someone tried to touch them in a way that makes them feel uncomfortable.
For more child safety information, please see our free child safety report. If your child has been injured in any kind of accident, please contact Freeman & Chiartas in Charleston today.
