A 15-month-old baby girl in Santa Ana miraculously escaped with leg injuries after falling from a third-story window after a screen on the window gave way, The Orange County Register reports. The baby’s name was not released.
The baby was asleep next to her father, by an open window in an apartment in the 500 block of East Sixth Street in Santa Ana. Santa Ana police Cpl. Jose Gonzalez said the accident occurred, when the baby woke up and made her way to the open window and her weight caused the screen to collapse. She fell down three floors and landed unconscious on the cement floor below.
I’m extremely relieved and happy that the child survived this catastrophic fall. With warmer weather approaching, danger from window fall injuries increase. Many of us tend to keep our windows open during these hot summer days.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recently issued a warning to parents and caregivers to prevent such window falls. According to CPSC staff, there have been at least 18 falls from windows including two deaths all involving children since April of this year. These deaths and injuries, as it happened in the Orange County window fall, occur when kids push themselves against window screens or climb onto furniture located next to an open window.
CPSC recommends that you follow these steps to protect children –
• Use window guards and window stops;
• Do not depend on screens to keep children from falling out;
• Keep furniture away from windows
• Strongly discourage children from climbing near windows.
If the screen door or the window was not installed according to the Santa Ana Building Code requirements, then the family of the child may have a personal injury case against the property management company and the owners of the apartment. The family will be well-advised to consult a personal injury attorney who is skilled in premises liability cases to examine the screen and the window to check whether it was defective or lacked proper installation.