CPSC Rates Kids Falling From Windows A Top 5 Home Hazard

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A 5-year-old girl remains in the hospital after falling out of her bedroom window in Ross Township on Thursday afternoon.

While the investigation into how it happened continues, there are some ways you can protect your own children from the same sort of accident.

After tumbling from her second-story window, the girl was found lying on the concrete driveway below, unconscious but breathing.

Police say the little girl's mother was tending to a toddler in another room of the Rene Drive home when it happened.

"The trauma seasons, spring to summer months, we will see dozens of these types of injuries," said Dr. Kevin Moller, a pediatric trauma surgeon at Children's Hospital.

The little girl in Ross Township is the fourth child in our area to be hurt this way in two weeks.

On March 25 in Mount Oliver, a 4-year-old boy fell from a second-story window at a home on Penn Avenue suffering a broken leg and other injuries.

That same day in Larimer on Mayflower Avenue, another little boy was rushed to the hospital with injuries to his head and wrists after falling from a second-floor window.

Then, on March 30 on Victoria Avenue in Arnold, a 1-year-old baby girl got a bump on her head after falling from a first-floor window.

"It's kids starting to walk up until 4 and 5 years of age," said Dr. Moller. "That is the key group."

Each year, 3,000 to 5,000 children fall out of windows in this country. The Consumer Product Safety Commission rates it one of the top five home hazards.

"These injuries can be prevented, and there have been campaigns around the country with such names as 'Kids Can't Fly,'" Dr. Moller says.

Safety recommendations include: never depend on screens to keep kids safe, prevent windows from being opened more than four inches, only open windows from the top when possible, move anything a child can climb on away from windows and install stops or guards.

RELATED LINKS:
Child Falls More Than 2 Stories From Window In Larimer (3/25/14)
Child Falls 20 Feet From Window In Ross Township (4/3/14)
More Reports by Mary Robb Jackson

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