The Safety Council of Palm Beach County along with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and others will be giving out 10,000 blue silicone bracelet for caregivers to wear when a child is in the car; if the caregiver still has the bracelet on after leaving the car, the child is likely still there.

Two children have died this year after being forgotten in vehicles in Florida. Six such deaths were recorded in 2010.

Jim Dodson Law supports any and all efforts to prevent these tragedies. We  have reported in the past about a device that senses the child in the rear seat and gives an audible and persistent reminder to remove the child. Such a device should be mandated on new car models. Until that happens, drivers are encouraged to use any means at their disposal to avoid forgetting. The bracelets are a good first step in raising awareness of the problem.  To get your free bracelet call the Safety Council @ (561) 845-8233.

Florida child injury attorney Jim Dodson is a longtime advocate for child safety.  He provides information to the public on keeping children safe and has a free consumer guide on legal steps needed to recover damages when the worst happens and  child is injured or killed due to someone’s negligence at http://jimdodsonlaw.com/category/library/child-injury/.

What Safe Routes to School Hopes to Achieve

Among the goals of the program are to increase bicycle, pedestrian, and traffic safety, and decrease traffic congestion, to have more children walking and bicycling to schools. Other benefits will be improved community safety, accessibility and increased community interest in bicycle and pedestrian accommodations. 

How to Achieve Safe Routes to School

These goals can be accomplished by encouraging community involvement and improving partnerships among parents, schools, municipalities, and community organizations, and by improving the physical environment to increase the ability to walk and bicycle to school.

What are the 5 E’s of Safe Routes to School Recommended by the Federal Highway Administration?

• Engineering to create infrastructure surrounding schools to reduce speeds and conflicts with motor vehicles and safer crossings, walkways, trails, and bikeways
• Education to teach bicycling and walking safety skills and driver safety around schools
• Encouragement through activities to promote walking and bicycling 
• Enforcement by police of speed limits, yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks, and proper walking and bicycling behaviors; community enforcement, e.g. crossing guard programs
• Evaluation by monitoring and documenting outcomes

Clearwater Child injury attorney Jim Dodson endorses this program and encourages readers to support its goals to make his vision of child safety a reality.

Clearwater child injury accident attorney Jim Dodson successfully represented a local thirteen-year-old child recently, who suffered broken bones to a leg and foot when  hit by a car while getting off  the school bus at a regular stop. The driver who struck the child was attempting to pass the stopped school bus. These accidents are becoming all too common. In Central Florida, nearly a dozen students have been injured in school bus accidents since the beginning of the school year.

We encourage drivers in Florida and around the nation to be mindful of the law and of the safety and well-being of our children during National School Bus Safety Week and throughout the year.

 In Pinellas County, the event is sponsored by the Suncoast SAFE KIDS Coalition and All Children’s Hospital. Its focus is to promote pedestrian safety, fitness, and community involvement, according to Cecilia Barreda with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department. Crossing guards, community police officers, firefighters, parents, and teachers accompany students walking and biking to school, helping them learn safe habits.

  The goal of the international event is to make the world more pedestrian friendly and to

• Encourage physical activity by teaching children the skills to walk safely, how to identify safe routes to school, and the benefits of walking 
• Raise awareness of how walkable a community is and where improvements can be made
• Reduce traffic congestion, pollution, and speed near schools

 Organizers of the event hope to raise awareness of the many benefits of walking and to make the world a safer place in which to do it.

  The National Center for Safe Routes to School of the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center maintains a website with information about International Walk to School Day and International Walk to School Month at http://www.walktoschool.org.

 Florida has the worst record in the nation when it comes to pedestrian safety, according to the oft-quoted Transportation for America Dangerous by Design study. Jim Dodson Law is deeply committed to pedestrian, bicyclist, and child safety.  We encourage family members to get out and participate in this event during the month of October and beyond!

Nearly 400 of Lake Minneola High School’s 1400 students will be ineligible for bus service because they live within two miles of the school.

More than 70,000 students In Orange and Seminole counties and 7,000 in Lake County are ineligible for bus transportation because of a two-mile limit.

Orange County Public Schools has cut about $9 million from its transportation budget over the past two years and is reducing about 15 of its routes.

In Seminole County, the district is combining routes for budgetary reasons, forcing some students to walk farther to get to bus stops.

Volusia County will no longer transport about 800 students taking advanced or specialized classes to campuses outside their school zones, saving the district about $300,000.

With more students walking longer distances, having to cross more busy roads, and walking on shoulders without sidewalks, more pedestrian accidents involving a child are inevitable.  Other students who once relied on school bus transportation will be arriving at school by car, increasing traffic and creating further risk of injuries from car accidents as well as pedestrian accidents.

Parents are understandably concerned.  With financial resources severely strained, school districts need to make cuts somewhere. But is saving money worth the risk of having a school child hit by a car and suffering serious injuries?

If your child has been hit by a car or injured in an accident, it is important to contact a pedestrian accident attorney as soon as possible to assess the case, as the child may have a claim for damages.  Clearwater pedestrian injury attorney Jim Dodson has been representing accident victims for 25 years and offers a unique No Fee for Kids program. Read more at http://www.jwdodsonlaw.com/library/no-fee-for-kids-jim-dodson-law.cfm .

“What kind of parent allows such a thing to happen?” you ask. Tragically, the answer is good parents, according to a University of South Florida professor of neuroscience, the St. Petersburg Times reported in a July 29^th article. David Diamond studied 50 of the cases of child death from hyperthermia as a result of being left in cars, and in every case, he found that otherwise good parents experiencing a combination of sleep deprivation, stress, and change in routine had suffered a memory lapse.

Children here in Florida are at a greater risk because of our intense summer heat. Children should never be left in cars, even for a moment. KidsAndCars.org, an organization dedicated to preventing child injury and death in cars, suggests that when you first get in, put something you absolutely must have—like your purse—on the back seat next to the child, to avoid forgetting to take your child with you.

Our child injury blog includes this very difficult subject to raise public awareness and because we are committed to keeping children safe. One child injury or one child death is one too many.

The issue of seat belts on our nation’s buses has not gone unconsidered. In 2002, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported to Congress that the costs and drawbacks of requiring seat belts in school buses would outweigh any potential benefit of requiring children to wearing belts.

The Transportation Research Board says what parents need to know is that children are much safer on school buses than in the family car. Eight times safer, in fact, their studies show. At work to protect children aboard school buses is an integrated engineering design called “compartmentalization,” which provides a passive restraint system, very much like the way eggs in a carton are protected from breaking. Heavily padded and high-backed seats are placed close together and are firmly anchored in place, so in the event of a crash, they absorb the impact, preventing injury to the children.

We all know that accidents can happen at any time and to any one. But hopefully, this information can help put parents  minds at ease that children are safe riding on the school bus.

 Another encouraging and significant change in child safety is a new standard that mandates more rigorous safety tests for children’s cribs before they go on the market. CPSC chairman said these are the toughest safety standards in the world.

 New cribs will have all 4 sides fixed and will be sturdier due to tougher testing requirements.

 CPCS says hotels, day care centers and companies that rent cribs have until December 28, 2012 to purchase cribs that meet the new safety standards. A baby’s crib is the biggest and most important purchase a parent makes for a new baby. Thankfully, parents will have  safe options with these new safety standards.

“When Kids Suffer Big Injuries,” a free guide available to families in Florida who need answers after a child suffers a  serious injury.

Call 1-727-446-0840, for yours today.

 Babies under 1 year-old are safest when placed on their backs in empty cribs that meet the latest safety standards set by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. About 2500 infants die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) each year. The AAP and the CPSC have urged parents not to use the kind of bumpers that a baby could sink into. Experts and manufacturers agree all those items that make the crib seem cuddly and cozy can block a baby’s nose and mouth and some sleeping babies may not wake up sufficiently to fight for air when this happens, leading to SIDS.

 Another reminder: This June it will be illegal to make, sell or resell any crib in the U.S. that doesn’t meet tough new federal standards. Drop-down sides which have been linked to 32 infant deaths since 2000, will be prohibited. New rules also require stronger slats, mattress supports and hardware to withstand active toddlers.

 Tags with the code 16 CFR 1219 for full size cribs and 16 CFR 1220 for compact cribs indicate the cribs meet the new standards. Hotels, day care centers, churches and other public accommodations have until December 2012 to make sure their cribs meet new safety standards.

But what about internet safety? Is there a plan in place in your home to help keep your children protected from threats to their safety while online? A recent news source reported 54% of young people admitted to engaging in risky online behavior. Internet safety can seem like  an overwhelming task for parents and care givers. We all know there is no substitute for adult supervision but additional resources are out there to help.

Check out www.internetsafety101.org – a website with a wealth of information including “Rules and Tools” – an internet safety checklist, along with other ways to educate and empower yourself to keep your children safe online!