HALLOWEEN SAFETY TIPS FOR GHOULS AND GOBLINS

From the candy to the costumes, Halloween can be a fun time for parents and kids alike. When you combine children with dark streets, you have a formula for danger. According to Safe Kids Worldwide, the risk of children being hit by a car is higher on Halloween then any other day of the year. To reduce the dangers, follow these Halloween Safety Tips to stay safe on the spookiest of holidays.

Be Safe – Be Seen on Halloween

A good Halloween safety tip is to choose costumes and treat bags that are bright and reflective. If your child's costume or treat bag is not reflective, you can affix reflective tape to them. Choose costumes that fit well. Pants that are too baggy or costumes too cumbersome increase the risk of falling.

Light Up the Darkness

Encourage children to use glow sticks or flashlights. Children under theage of 12 should always be accompanied by an adult. If you are not accompanyingthem, ask your child their intended route. Make sure they are not going aloneand you that know the friends they are going with.

For any parent in Naperville, finding out that your child got hurt in a slip and fall accident at school is extremely distressing news. You might be wondering how the accident happened and why the administration did not take steps to prevent something like this from taking place on school grounds. If your child sustained serious injuries as a result of a slip, trip or fall at school, you may be able to file a premises liability lawsuit.

As an article in Property Casualty 360 points out, schools need to have liability policies that include premises liability coverage. The Illinois Premises Liability Act(740 ILCS 130/) makes clear, schools (whether public or privately owned), like other businesses, owe a duty to anyone who legally comes onto the premises. What else do you need to know about slips and falls at schools?

Conditions for Slips and Falls Are Common at Schools

There are numerous dangerous conditions that can lead to a slip and fall accident, and many of them occur with some regularity at schools. As you might imagine, liquid spills occur often in school cafeterias, and during rainy or snowy weather in Naperville, entryways can become slick as students, faculty, and staff track in mud or as snow melts from boots. In addition, inclement weather can produce slip and fall risks outside the school (but still on school grounds). For example, an icy patch of sidewalk leading to the bus ramp can be especially dangerous for students walking quickly to catch their rides home.

Who is responsible when a child dies in a drowning accident? And can families file wrongful death claims in the aftermath of such a tragedy? In some instances, children drown at public pools or in shallow ocean water while a lifeguard is nearby. In other cases, kids can suffer fatal injuries at the homes of family members or friends in private pools or even in the bathtub. While each case has its own facts and complications, a recent article in Slate reported that, "in 10 percent of drownings, adults are nearby but have no idea the victim is dying."

Given that summer is in full swing, and many Chicago residents will be taking weekend trips for lake vacations, it is important to understand how to identifying a drowning victim. Do you know the signs and symptoms of a child that is drowning?

Understanding What Drowning Actually Looks Like

In short, as the article explains, "drowning is not violent." Many people believe that someone is only at risk of drowning when that person is flailing and visually having difficulty in the water. However, "drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event." To be sure, "the waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning... prepares us to look for is rarely seen in real life."

Slip and fall accidentscan happen to anyone. While anarticlefrom the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) emphasizes that older adults are at particularly high risk of sustaining a serious injury in a fall, personal injuries resulting fromslips, trips, and fallscan affect Americans in every age group. Indeed, afact sheetfromKidshealth.orghighlights how kids can suffer serious injuries in fall-related accidents. A report from the World Health Organization (WHO) underscores that "falling is a normal part of the way a child develops—learning to walk, climb, run, jump, and explore the physical environment." But what kinds of falls are particularly hazardous to our children's health, and how can we prevent them?

Slips, Trips, and Falls Involving Kids

According to the WHO report, "falls are the most common type of childhood injury presenting at emergency departments, accounting for between 20 to 25 percent of such visits." To be sure, falls currently are the 12th leading cause of death in children between the ages of 5 to 9, and teens between the ages of 15 to 19. To get a sense of the total number of kids that require medical attention each year due to fall-related injuries, around 46,000 children suffer fatal injuries each year worldwide.

How many of these injuries result from slips, trips, and falls as opposed to falls from heights? As you might imagine, a fall from a height is a more common source of injury among children, accounting for about 66 percent of the fatal fall-related injuries reported by the WHO. Around 8 percent of kids who sustain fatal fall-related injuries slipped and fell on the same level. But slip and fall accidents can also be debilitating. While fewer than 10 percent of all fatal childhood falls occur on the same level, far more same-level falls lead to serious but nonfatal injuries.

Whether you live in Champaign, Aurora, Naperville, or another part of the greater Chicago metropolitan area, it is important to know about secondary drowning and the serious risks of personal injury. Given that we are approaching the summer months, many residents of Chicagoland will be heading out on summer vacations with their families. For many of us, those vacations will include recreational activities on the water such as swimming and boating. But without the proper safety precautions, serious personal injuries can occur. In particular, a child or adult in your family could sustain severe and life-threatening injuries from drowning.

One of the most hazardous forms of drowning is known as "secondary drowning," according to an article in the Huffington Post. In short, parents can think that a child is safe and healthy after falling into a pool or into the ocean, for example, but the child can actually suffer from secondary drowning hours later. What do you need to know about secondary drowning?

Secondary Drowning Does Not Occur in the Water

The first and most important fact to recognize about secondary drowning is that it does not occur when a child is still in the water. Rather, as the article explains, "both dry and secondary drowning are considered atypical types of drowning in that they occur after a child has been pulled out of the water." What is the difference between dry and secondary drowning? Dry drowning happens when someone swallows water that enters the airway and prevents the person from breathing. If it is not properly treated, it can result in breathing problems and even suffocation. Secondary drowning happens when someone swallows water and it enters the lungs. Like dry drowning, secondary drowning can lead to breathing difficulties and, if untreated, eventual suffocation.