Grocery Store Shopping Carts Can Be Dangerous for Children
While it might seem strange, thousands of children are injured in shopping cart accidents each year. The children who are at the most risk for shopping cart injury and death are children below the age of 5.
The majority of injuries are caused by falls from carts and cart tip-overs, with head and neck injuries accounting for the majority. Personal injury attorney in Florida, Brad Sinclair, advises parents to be careful when children are in shopping carts and to always supervise. Below, he offers some tips to help prevent shopping cart injury:
- Stay with the child at all times.
- Don’t allow children to ride in the basket of the cart – insist on them sitting in the proper area.
- Don’t allow one child to push another child around in a shopping cart.
- Don’t allow a child to climb onto or off of the cart.
- Make sure the child is seated at all times. Shopping carts were not meant for standing in, and this can imbalance the cart, causing the child to fall.
However, despite all safety precautions, sometimes children are injured in carts because safety regulations are not up to par. Many shopping carts lack restraints, and even ones that have them are easy for children to remove or wiggle out of. We suggest never choosing a cart without restraints, and if at all possible, don’t put the child in the cart in the first place.
In the event your child has been injured in a shopping cart, Brad Sinclair urges you to contact a personal injury lawyer to see what can be legally done in the situation. The laws of liability can be complex, but if a child has suffered injury due to a faulty cart, it’s important to get just compensation with a competent personal injury attorney.