Personal Injury Lawyer
People enjoy swimming, whether inside or outside, in the ocean, lakes, or pools. However, this fun activity can quickly turn dangerous if people are careless. Hundreds of people each year die as a result of water-related injuries, according to information compiled by the Centers for Disease Control. Young children are at especially high risk for these injuries, accounting for approximately 20 percent of those deaths. Yet, people who suffer swimming injuries like this are not without recourse. As a personal injury lawyer can explain, there are a variety of legal claims available for the different injuries that may occur due to a swimming accident.
Types of Swimming Pool Injuries
Swimming pools can be responsible for several different types of injuries. One of the most common is, of course, fatalities caused by drowning, but swimming pools can be dangerous in other ways as well. For instance, even if a person survives nearly drowning, oxygen deprivation can cause permanent brain damage. Further, people diving into pools can often injure themselves by failing to check the depth of the water, which can cause them to strike their heads on the bottom of the pool. This can result in traumatic brain injuries like concussions, as well as damage to a person’s spinal cord.
Types of Legal Claims for Swimming Pool Accidents
When a person sustains an injury in a swimming pool, they have two legal claims that they can pursue: premises liability and product liability. Premises liability, probably the more commonly used argument, takes effect when a person injures themselves on someone else’s property. The law gives landowners a duty to use reasonable care to ensure that others do not injure themselves because of defects or hazards on their property. That means that pool owners may be liable for a person’s injuries if they failed to properly maintain or secure their pool and someone was injured as a result. For example, if a pool owner failed to properly label the pool’s shallow end, and a child dove in and injured their head or spine, the pool’s owner may be liable for that injury.
Product liability claims do not attempt to hold the pool’s owner liable but are instead aimed against the pool’s manufacturer. These claims occur when there is some inherent defect in the pool’s manufacturing or design that made it unsafe for public use. Suppose the manufacturer improperly designed one of the pool’s drains, and someone got their hand stuck in it, resulting in an injury. That injury might give rise to a product liability claim against the manufacturer since they should have made sure that their product was safe before bringing it to the market.
Contact a Personal Injury Law Firm Today
If you or your child has recently been injured in a swimming pool accident, make sure you speak with a lawyer who is skilled and knowledgeable in injury law. Call an experienced attorney, like a personal injury attorney from a law firm like Yearin Law Office.
