Florida Injury Lawyer Blog

Two recent South Florida daycare negligence cases, one in Palm Beach and another in Miami-Dade County, have sparked debate on how to keep children safe in daycares and prevent wrongful death cases from happening. One preventive measure, advocated by Florida Senator Maria Sachs of Delray Beach, would be to install safety alarms in daycare vans to prevent death from extreme heat. These alarms would alert daycare van drivers to inspect the vehicles when they drop off children. Drivers would have to go to the back of the vehicle to turn off the alarm.

A Palm Beach personal injury lawsuit was filed last August against Katie's Kids Learning Center in Delray Beach for the wrongful death of a 2-year-old who died after being left in a hot van. The facility has since shut down.

For more information on the Miami-Dade daycare wrongful death lawsuit mentioned at the beginning of this blog, please visit our blog entry on that topic.

According to San Francisco State University Department of Geosciences statistics, 513 children in the U.S. have died of hyperthermia (heat stroke) from being left in vehicles since 1998. The study shows that from 1998 through 2010, 51 percent of children who died from heat in vehicles were "forgotten" by their caregiver.

Continue reading "Delray Beach Senator Urges Installation of Safety Alarms in Daycare Vans " »

Leaving children unattended in South Florida's sweltering heat can be a killer. As reported by the Miami Herald, a 22-month-old boy from Homestead died earlier this week in a van outside a daycare. An investigation is ongoing to determine the cause of the boy's death. The family of the boy has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the daycare. The family's attorney believes the boy's death is heat-related.

This story follows the death of a 2-year-old girl who died from the heat outside a Delray Beach daycare in a van last August.

An estimated 3.5 million children are the victims of abuse or neglect each year in the U.S., according to preventchildabuse.org. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, approximately 1,770 children died in the U.S. in 2009 as a result of child abuse or neglect. 35.8% of these deaths were linked to neglect.

Continue reading "Wrongful Death of Child Left in Van Leads to Immediate Miami-Dade Lawsuit" »