Family of toddler killed in fall from aparment sues apartment owner - Sensationalist Headlines

https://wtop.com/fairfax-county/2018/08/family-of-toddler-killed-in-may-va-fall-sues-apartment-owner/ WASHINGTON — The family of a 3-year-old boy who fell 26 stories to his death from an apartment window at the Skyline Towers Apartments in May is taking their fight to court after a second child’s fatal fall. According to their lawyer, the family of 3-year-old Syed Noor Zaidi expedited the lawsuit following another fatal fall on Monday, where a 2-year-old boy fell 24 stories from a balcony at the same Fairfax County complex. Police say the adult watching the toddler in the latest incident was occupied with another child when the toddler fell off the balcony. Zaidi’s family is suing the building owner, Equity Residential, and the property manager for $100 million for negligence, saying they knew the windows were dangerous. Lawyer Kim Brooks-Rodney that while the two incidents happened under different scenarios, Monday’s prompted her to expedite the filing of the lawsuit. I'm not really sure what the apartment builder/owner can do to prevent a toddler from falling out of a window... This is what the apartments look like from outside. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/132997/c8458cb7-e224-4f2d-b89c-0a5a1451252b/Screen Shot 2018-08-15 at 3.19.32 PM.png https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/132997/78fad1ef-b23d-42e2-9657-95366dbb849b/Screen Shot 2018-08-15 at 3.19.43 PM.png

idk looks like a pretty typical railing to me they are suing them for NEGLIGENCE??? i really hope the parents lose this court case in an emphatic way

Oh my god, can you imagine being a bystander when that happened? How awful.

God forbid seeing the aftermath of that...

While she acknowledged screens are not meant to keep kids in, and they’re not suing the screen manufacturer, she said safety measures, including labels, should be put in place to alert parents to the dangers. The article also mentions that there were several other incidents of similar things happening. It is clearly an issue that needs addressing at the very least.

I don't buy it, is all. 4 incidents over the course of at least 3 years across the country doesn't seem like a high mortality rate. It just seems like isolated incidents of parental negligence. Is she saying that the parents assumed the windows were safe for a children to climb up on because the windows had a screen on them and the screens didn't explicitly say "will not hold any weight at all"? That seems like common sense.

It's not 4 incidents across the country. It's 4 incidents at the property management company's properties alone. So far, there have been four incidents involving children at Equity Residential apartment buildings, three at Skyline Towers including a nonfatal 2015 fall and another fall at an Equity Residential property in Minnesota last month. Not something I would consider merely incidental. If it's this much of a problem, the very least the management company can do is to properly label the apartments so that parents are aware, which they has neglected to do.

You don't need a warning label to tell you a window is potentially dangerous. Parenting requires sense. It's sad the child fell and died but this just the lawyer trying to deflect responsibility from the parents. Are we supposed to have huge stickers on every window now that says "hey don't let your kids play with this because it's a 26 story trip to the grave on the other side of it." Some things just require you to use your own sense of risk judgement.

It's 4 incidents across the country for the management. 3 of which were at this building over the course of 4 years, which still seems pretty incidental to me. Toddlers climb shit. If you don't keep an eye on them, and you keep the window open, they're going to climb out the window. You'd have to be fucking braindead to think "it's okay, I can leave the window open because this flimsy screen is in the way!" Even then, is that the property management company's fault, or is it the screen manufacturer's fault?

Not all of them are windows. At least one mentioned in the article was a balcony, which also requires sense when you allow children to use it, regardless of how it's constructed. Young children are exceptional at finding ways to die which is why were hardwired to be parents to our kids. Otherwise we'd never make it because all the kids would die from the first thing they find.

maybe the parents shouldn't let their toddlers toddle next to a balcony

Nearly one incident a year is not something I would consider mere coincidence. If children were falling out of windows at this rate across the country, then there would be a serious issue needing to be dealt with. (Addressing both posts) I'm not denying that the parents should probably have used better judgement in these situations or suggesting that the company is at fault here. I'm suggesting that the mere fact that this is occurring this often indicates that something should be done about it, rather than just saying "Oh well, the parents should have known better." Perhaps they shouldn't be using a flimsy screen like the ones installed in these apartments, or they should use a window fixture that isn't prone to toddlers being able to climb out of it unsupervised.

Why the fuck are you blaming the owner? The kid caused his own death by jumping out the window, something that's a big no-no ESPECIALLY when he more than likely saw the fucking drop.

Perhaps the parents should have purchased one or at least put in a work order for one with their landlord. Child-proofing the apartment is the parent's job, not the landlords

Pretty sure the 26 story drop could've killed anyone, not just a child

Yes but adults know not to climb out of windows. The landlord could have welded the windows shut, too, but that would just be stupid

Maybe they shouldn't have windows. I mean, glass is much weaker than bricks and metal. Windows are a safety hazard. No more houses with windows. Also no doors, doors can let dangerous people into your home to hurt your kids. Just brick 'em in for their safety.

The fundamentals of engineering is to make things safe for everyone. There's a reason why children playgrounds can take the weight of full grown adults. Similarly, I think buildings should also be safe for 3-year-olds. There really should be zero fatalities, regardless of parent negligence. It's not like the parents are even witnessing the kid near the window, or even had a thought that the window might be dangerous to children. "Kids keep falling out of gaping holes in the building, but it's the parent's fault for not keeping the kids safe!" Yeah the parents can try to educate their literal 2-year-olds about the dangers of windows in high places, but that doesn't really seem feasible... It would be an elementary precaution at the building's owner's expense to install some window bars to keep them from opening wide enough for a child to just wander out.

Or they could keep the fucking window locked? Which might make some people not want to live there if they can't really open the windows. It's up to the parents to do that.

We already design buildings this way though, home power outlets are designed to be non-fatal even if you were to directly shock yourself with it. Even if you are a toddler. Windows in a building should have at least a similar difficulty in being fatal.

What if I want to open my window though

Install a window bar and be sued when fire traps them in their room and the fire department can't cut the bar off fast enough.

I never said you shouldn't be able to open the window, it just shouldn't be so easy for 3 toddlers to just up and climb out of.

Lotta people have no business trying to raise children, they should be paying attention to their kids and instead of owning up to their fuck up they go the SUE SUE SUE route like it's anyone elses fault but theirs.

Yeah, a window bar isn't a great solution if there wasn't a balcony right there.

My family went to the beach several weeks ago, and my son is 2 and 1/2 and is climby as fuck. Our hotel suite was on the 17th floor. My parents didn't understand why I was shouting at them for letting my son go out on the balcony by himself.

The article starts by saying the kid fell out the window, then says the balcony. If it was the balcony what can anyone do besides make every balcony a literal metal cage so no child can squeeze through or climb over?

There's a reason people make compilations of toddlers climbing over things/squeezing their way through rediculous places. If a baby is crawling around on a balcony and you're not watching them, you're doing something wrong.

Honestly, when it comes to balconies I believe the responsibility for child-proofing falls onto the parents. There are nets available to install to prevent falls.

By the time you've had a kid for three years you should've learnt that toddlers are uncanny danger-magnets.