Mr. Grossman and the rest of his staff showed a high level of expertise and genuine concern for my family and me. Mr. Grossman kept us well informed of the status of our case. Mr. Grossman returned my telephone calls promptly. My overall experience with Mr. Grossman was excellent. Regardless of the hard times, this period of time carried joy in knowing you. Thank you so much for all of your help.
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J. Dodd
Fatal Pool Accidents
Wrongful Death Attorney Michael Grossman Explains Your Options After Losing a Loved one in a Fatal Pool Accident
If you spend even one summer in Texas and Arkansas, then you will develop a unique appreciation for the refreshing joy of a swimming pool. It’s hot down here in the summer time, and sometimes the only way to cool off is to get wet and stay that way.
Unfortunately, pools can on occasion be just as dangerous as they are revitalizing, and people, particularly children, can be injured or killed in pool accidents. In every year, approximately 1,000 American children die in pool accidents, with drowning the most frequent culprit. However, people can slip and fall around a pool and die from a fatal blow to the head just as easily as they can drown.
If your child or another loved one has died in a fatal pool accident – whether it was due to drowning or an improperly maintained pool or some other reason – and the property owner or pool manufacturer was responsible, then you may have the right to seek compensation through a wrongful death lawsuit involving either premises liability, product liability, or negligent supervision issues.
No matter what the cause of the fatal pool accident that robbed you have your loved one, the attorneys at Grossman Law Offices can help. We’ve been dealing with drowning litigation and other wrongful death lawsuits for two decades in both Texas and Arkansas, so we have the knowledge and seasoning to help your family secure the compensation it deserves. To begin, we’ve provided this informative article to help you better understand the issues at play in a legal proceeding involving a fatal pool accident. Should you like to discuss the issues involved with your specific pool accident, call us now for a free consultation at 1-855-589-5645 (toll free).
Drowning Statistics in the United States
According to the Center for Disease Control, drowning is the second cause of accidental death among children ages 1 to 14 years, accounting for nearly one-third of all fatal accidents among children in 2007. Moreover, more than one-fifth of fatal pool accidents occur to children, and most of these drownings occur in residential pools, when the child was under the care of one of the parent and hadn’t been out of sight for more than five minutes.
When looking after children who have access to swimming pool, parents and any other adult who has been left in a supervisory capacity bear a tremendous burden to provide adequate supervision. Even momentary inattention can lead to the death of the child.
Fatal Pool Accidents Involving Negligent Supervision
With a child needing only a matter of moments to drown in a pool, parental or adult supervision is an absolute necessity at all times. When a parent, guardian, lifeguard, pool operator, or some other responsible adult fails live up to his or her duty to protect the safety of your child, who has been entrusted in that person’s care, then that’s negligent supervision, making the supervising adult liable for the death. However, pool accidents may occur when a child wanders into a pool or at no fault of a supervising adult. In order to find out whether or not the fatal pool accident that killed your loved one was actionable due to negligent supervision, you should consult with a wrongful death attorney.
Poor Maintenance if Fatal Pool Accidents
Property owners have a duty to provide safe conditions for people who visit their properties, and as property owners, pool owners must provide for the well-being of the different types of visitors who enter their property. Both invitees, people who visit the property for the benefit of both the owner and the visitor, and licensees, people who visit the property for their own benefit, are due the duty of being warned about any existing dangers in a pool. When the pool is not properly maintained and there are potentially fatal dangers with the drain, the pool gate, or a diving board or slide, then the owner is responsible for warning swimmers. When some facet of the pool fails without the owner’s fore-knowledge, and fatal results occur, then the surviving family members can seek compensation from the manufacturer in a product liability lawsuit. At Grossman Law Offices, we have experience handling fatal pool accidents, so we know how to investigate thoroughly to help you identity all of the liable parties and hold them all responsible for the death of your loved one.
Compensation that can be Sought in a Wrongful Death Lawsuit after a Fatal Pool Accident
When a loved one has died in a fatal pool accident, the surviving loved ones have the right to seek both wrongful death damages and survival damages, but you must do so through one comprehensive lawsuit. Additionally, in the state of Arkansas, the family is compelled to name one executor of the estate to serve as the family’s representative in pursuing the lawsuit.
Through wrongful death damages, the spouse, children, and parents of someone who dies in a fatal pool accident may seek compensation for the personal sufferings they’ve experienced both economic and mental. Wrongful death damages may include:
- Funeral bills.
- Loss of the unique familial love and consortium provided by the victim.
- Loss of monetary support the victim provided before he or he she died.
- Mental and emotional trauma.
Survival damages, on the other hand, may be sought only by the victim’s closest living relative, starting with the husband or wife, then passed down to the son or daughter, mother or father, and then brother or sister. The purpose of survival damages is to allow this person to seek the compensation the victim should be due for his or her suffering. Survival damages may include:
- Medical bills charged to the victim before he or she died.
- The victim’s pain and suffering during the drowning.
- The victim’s mental distress caused by dying.
When estimating concrete damages like medical bills, the victim’s family need only produce the receipts. But when trying to calculate a subjective form of compensation like the victim’s pain in drowning, you need the help of a wrongful death attorney like those at Grossman Law Offices who have decades of experience handling such matters.
Safety Tips at the Pool
There are several different things you can do to avoid fatal pool accidents. First, and most important is that you and your family all learn how to swim competently. Don’t be afraid to take your infant to swimming lessons. In Texas and Arkansas, kids spend a lot of time in the pool during the stifling summers. The more comfortable your children are as swimmers, the safer they are.
However, there is also a list provided by the National Drowning Prevention Alliance to suggest ways pool owners can make their pools safer. If the owner of the pool in which your loved one drowned did not take these measures to protect your child’s safety, then you may very well have a legitimate wrongful death action under either premises liability or negligent supervision. The NDPA tips are:
- Never leave a child unattended in a pool.
- Never consider a child to be safe alone no matter how competent of a swimmer he or she is.
- Always designate at least one adult to keep an eye on the pool at all times.
- Every pool should be surrounded by at least a 5-foot fence with a safety-latch gate.
- The gate on the pool fence should never be left open.
- Floating pool covers are not safe and should not be used. Powered safety pool covers are the safer option.
- There should be a phone near the pool – both so you can quickly call for help and so that children are not left unattended while the adult goes back into the house to answer the phone.
- The pool owner should learn CPR.
- A life-saving doughnut, a shepherd’s hook, and instructions for CPR should be kept near the pool.
- No water should be left in buckets by the pool.
- The pool should be the first place checked whenever a child goes missing.
- When not in use, all pool toys should be removed from the pool area.
- Don’t use chlorine dispensers that could be confused as toys, like many of the older bobber-style models.
- Any babysitter employed to serve as a supervisor of pool activities should be instructed in pool dangers and the necessity of constant supervision.
Our Fatal Pool Accident Attorneys Can Help
If your child or another loved one has been killed a fatal pool accident, then the only recourse you have to hold the negligent party responsible is through a wrongful death lawsuit. Furthermore, your family has likely suffered financially just as much as you have suffered emotionally from your loss. You to deserve to be compensated.
At Grossman Law Offices, it’s just as important to us to make sure that fatally negligent behavior is corrected as it is to secure our share of compensation. That’s the only way that we can prevent other people’s children from dying in the same way. While we know that there is no amount of money that can actually repay you for the loss of your loved one, we also understand that the best way to get someone to change his or her behavior is by attacking that person’s wallet.
Over the past 20 years, we’ve helped hundreds of grief-stricken Texans and Arkansans recover many millions of dollars after the wrongful deaths of their loved ones in all types of accidents. We know what it takes to investigate a pool drowning in such a way as to identify all of the parties who caused the death, so that all of the parties to blame can be held accountable.
Right now, it’s critically important that you act quickly. Our ability to find the evidence to prove your case often depends upon a quick investigation, for evidence tends to disappear quickly. If a part in the pool was defective, then we must investigate before the problem is fixed, or we can’t prove the fault lay with either improper maintenance or defective assembly. If negligent supervision led to your child’s drowning, then we must find witnesses who can attest to the liability of the party who was charged with the child’s care. Witnesses become hard to find soon after any fatal accident. In Texas and Arkansas, you have two years to file a wrongful death lawsuit from the time you learn of the death, but that doesn’t mean you have anything to benefit by waiting.
Call Grossman Law Offices today at 1-855-589-5645 (toll free) for a free consultation to find out how we can help you secure the compensation you deserve after the death of your loved one in a fatal pool accident. We will listen to your story, answer all of your questions, and explain what we can to help.
Facility sued for negligent contribution to the death of an innocent bystander. A fatal shooting occurred on the property after the facility failed to appropriately respond to outbursts of violence & gang activity. Following the young man's death, his parents hired our firm to pursue the facility for their negligent actions including failure to provide adequate security. The case was successfully resolved through litigation.
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The authorities initially faulted the driver of the vehicle in which the victim was a passenger, stating that he was using an electronic device rather than paying full attention to the roadway. However, the 18-wheeler was indeed blocking the roadway and plaintiff alleged that the vehicle did not follow the requirements of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Act in regard to providing adequate reflective or laminated warning at specific intervals. Further, the plaintiffs alleged that the defendant failed to remove his vehicle from the roadway when he first noticed signs of mechanical failure.
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