CHILD SURVIVES ACCIDENTAL FALL FROM APARTMENT WINDOW MISSING WINDOW GUARD
From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Brooklyn Accident Attorney)
Before I get to the main subject of today's blog (a young accident victim), I want to share some interesting information with you.
In the 1970s, the New York City Health Department became aware of a large number of children falling from apartment building windows. The Health Department developed and began a public awareness program named "Children Can't Fly."
The Children Can't Fly Program, started in 1972, was a huge success - dramatically reducing children's deaths and injuries. In the Bronx alone, the number of children hurt and injured by accidental falls from windows was cut in half. By 1976 the New York City Board of Health amended the Health Code to require window guards in apartments with children under age 10.
Those of you readers who live in apartment buildings may get window guard notices periodically, where you have to state if there are children under age 10 living in the apartment. This leads us to today's topic.
On Sunday, June 10, 2010 two year-old Ebrahim Aburawi dropped some thirty feet through an unguarded, open apartment window, to a terrace below. He fell from the 18th floor to the 15th floor of the building where his parents live on East 46th Street in Manhattan. Amazingly, his injuries from the accident were minor. He is reported under observation, but recovering nicely, at Bellevue Hospital.
The apartment lacked window guards. It is reported that the New York City Building Department issued a citation to the building owner for not installing window guards in the apartment.
