Florida Injury Lawyer Blawg
A 3-year-old drowned Saturday in a lake at the Amelia Earhart Park in Hialeah after she was separated from her family member, police say.
Alarm bells were sounded when the family member told park rangers they could not find the little girl. Park officials began searching and found the child’s body in one of the five lakes on the 515-acre property. Emergency responders took the child to Palmetto General Hospital where she later died.
In May, Miami-Dade County unveiled new enhancement plans for the park, including a new recreation center with a pool and splash pad.
Devastating Numbers
Florida is a state known for its sunny days by the pool and beautiful, natural water systems. With the year-round warm weather allowing residents and tourists alike to partake in swimming at natural springs, oceans and backyard pools comes the persistent fear in the back of parents’ minds that their child could drown. The state has consistently ranked among the highest in the country for accidental drowning deaths for children aged 1 to 4 years old, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Data from the Florida Department of Health states that enough children 5 years old and younger die from drowning in the state to fill approximately three to four preschool classrooms.
In its latest report on accident drownings in the United States, the CDC reported that these incidents are on the rise. About 4,500 people drowned in the United States from 2020 through 2022, an increase of approximately 500 people per year since 2019, the numbers show. The CDC pits drowning as the leading cause of death for children ranging in age from 1 to 4 years old. The rate of drowning increased 28% from 2019 and 19% in adults from 65 to 74 years old.
Leesfield & Partners has issued several water safety tips over the summer to include pool and ocean swimming tips, especially involving children.
Leesfield & Partners
Leesfield & Partners attorneys have extensive experience in drowning cases with our attorneys having guided grieving families through the court system, reliving the most devastating day of their lives to get justice or achieve some sort of change for their lost loved one. In its 48 years representing these families, Leesfield & Partners attorneys have seen firsthand the agony of their grief at the hands of a negligent corporation and or rental property owner.
One family was forever changed when a father and husband lost his wife and two young daughters due to the U.S. Navy’s failure to maintain its pier in a safe condition.
“Ivan Grayson, tormented by the mind-numbing horror of the tragedy that wiped his family from the face of the earth, desperately needs to know why this happened,” U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King said of the case.
Grayson was awarded $2.95 million for the loss of his family.
In a case out of Osceola County, lawyers with the firm secured a confidential amount for a family whose minor son was suctioned into a Hotel Resort Orlando in Osceola County pool drain. The resort did not have an off switch for the drain. The child was under the water for nearly 10 minutes, causing him brain damage and needing life-long medical care. This case resulted in the largest result of its kind in Osceola County secured for the family.
In South Florida, a toddler drowned as a result of an inadequately installed child-safety fence found around the property’s pool. Leesfield & Partners attorneys secured a seven-figure settlement for the family in that case.
Earlier this year, Leesfield & Partners attorneys filed a lawsuit against Airbnb and the owner of a rental property after a 2-year-old girl drowned in the house’s pool. It took mere seconds for the child to fall into the water and drown and, despite quick action from adults who pulled her out, she died weeks later at the hospital. The home was not up to par with Florida regulations in terms of its child safety railings.
