Some might assume that a problem with a stroller or baby carrier is a relatively minor thing, unlikely to cause much in the way of real harm. However, stroller/carrier accidents can inflict some substantial injuries on children. Such injuries sometimes even rise to the level of necessitating emergency care.
A recent study looked at stroller/carrier injuries among young children. The study analyzed data regarding these injuries, covering the 1990 to 2010 period. According to the study, stroller/carrier accident injury rates went down over this period.
However, the total amount of stroller/carrier accident injuries that led to kids five or under going to an emergency room still amounted to a pretty big number for the period. Specifically, the period as a whole saw around 361,000 children of that age group suffer such injuries, according to estimates.
Also, there is one type of stroller/carrier injury that became increasing cited in emergency room visits between 1990 and 2010: traumatic brain injuries/concussions. As a note, the study’s results do not indicate if the increase in the portion of hospital-visit-resulting stroller/carrier accidents that had brain injuries or concussions among the cited injuries was due to an increase in the amount of these head injuries being suffered or instead things like doctors being more watchful of sign and symptoms of such injuries. The findings do, however, serve as an illustration that head injuries are one of the significant injury concerns that can come up in relation to strollers and baby carriers.
Another thing to note is that, in the time since the end of the time period the study looked at, the federal government put out new safety regulations regarding strollers and baby carriers. One wonders what future research will have to say on what has happened with stroller/carrier accident injuries since these regulations took effect.
Companies that manufacture strollers or baby carriers should be taking all reasonable steps to keep their strollers safe, including carefully complying with federal product safety rules. Whether a given stroller or baby carrier complied with such rules is one of the things skilled personal injury attorneys can look into for parents whose children suffered a brain injury, concussion or other injury while in a stroller or carrier.
Source: The New York Times, “More Head Injuries Reported for Babies in Stroller Accidents,” Rachel Rabkin Peachman, Aug. 17, 2016
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