General

• Child Restraint System Attributed to Preventing Serious Injury
  Jan 21, 2011

  The Missouri State Highway Patrol is attributing a proper child restraint to helping prevent what could have been resulted in a serious injury to a five year old following a motor vehicle accident on Wednesday afternoon.
  
  The crash occurred when the driver of a Toyota Tacoma collided with the passenger side of a Chevrolet truck after driving past a stop sign. The five year old was on that side. Luckily, he was only treated for minor injuries.
  
  According to the accident report, serious injuries were avoided because the child was in an appropriate safety seat and was secured properly. It is important to know your state's child safety seat requirements.
  
  Check out: Missouri Child Restraint Laws and Kansas Child Restraint Laws
  
  For more information, read our article, Car Seat Safety.

• Roswold Foundation for Injured Children Offers Child Injury Prevention Classes
  Jan 21, 2011

  Roswold Foundation for Injured Children offers child injury prevention and safety awareness classes for parents, young babysitters, and more. If you feel that your group or facility could benefit from child injury prevention and safety awareness classes, feel free to contact us at info@rffic.org or call us at 866-604-8744 to schedule your class. Accidental injuries are common occurrences in the home arising out of  falls, drownings, burns and more. Frequent injuries also arise out of school athletics, especially concussion and should be handled appropriately.
  
  There are steps we can all take to make our homes a safer place for our families, such as installing carbon monoxide detectors, using the back burners on stoves, and installing outlet covers. Children's Mercy reported that it treated more than 13,000 emergency room patients for injuries and the majority of those injuries are preventable through effective use of bike helmets, seat belts, and smoke detectors.

• Teens Against Distracted Driving Campaign
  Jan 21, 2011

  Roswold Foundation for Injured Children and Roswold Law Group Launch Local TADD Campaign To Raise Awareness of the Dangers of Texting While Driving Amongst Teenagers

  
  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

  
  March 15, 2010—Kansas City, MO – Roswold Foundation for Injured Children joins forces with Roswold Law Group and Teens Against Distracted Driving (TADD) in a campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of texting while driving. The program is designed to encourage teenagers to not text and drive and to make a pledge that they will refrain from texting while driving and encourage their friends to do the same.
  
  According to a study done at the University of Utah, using a cell phone while driving distracts drivers to the point that it reduces a driver’s reaction time by as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 %. A study by Car & Driver Magazine revealed that texting drivers performed worse on road tests than drunk drivers. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute have reported that almost 80 % of auto accidents and 65 % of near-crashes involved some type of driver inattention.
  
  TADD was created by founder Jason Epstein of Seattle, Washington and a group of attorneys from across the nation, including Roswold Law Group, who see the effects of distracted driving all too often and felt compelled to take action to help spread the word that texting while driving is dangerous and can result in serious injuries and fatalities that could have been easily prevented.
  
  Roswold Foundation for Injured Children and Roswold Law Group are donating 500 silicone bracelets to two local schools, imprinted with “I PLDG 2 NT TXT N DRV.” Students will sign a pledge card when they receive their bracelet promising not to text while driving, which will help raise awareness of this growing phenomenon and serious problem.
  
  We are donating 500 bracelets to Shawnee Mission North High School in Kansas, which they plan to use in connection with their Mock DUI assembly. We are currently accepting nominations for a Missouri high school in the Kansas City metropolitan area.
  
  The schools can decide how they want to use the bracelets. Whether they opt to have a fundraiser and keep 100% of the proceeds or just give the bracelets to the students, our hope is that the students will heed the message. We applaud those who do their part to keep our roads safe for themselves and those around them.

• RFFIC Sponsors Teens Against Distracted Driving Campaign in Kansas City
  Jan 21, 2011

  Roswold Foundation for Injured Children joins forces with Roswold Law Group and Teens Against Distracted Driving, founded by Jason Epstein, and we launched a Kansas City based campaign to raise awareness of the epidemic of distracted driving.
  
  Texting while driving amongst teenagers is the primary target. Recent studies have shown that texting while driving is as bad as if not worse than drinking and driving at a .08 level. The first local school to receive 500 bracelets was Shawnee Mission North High School. The silicone bracelets read "I PLDG 2 NT TXT N DRV."
  
  We are currently accepting nominations for a Missouri school in the Kansas City metropolitan region to receive the next 500 bracelets. With the bracelets, students are given a pledge card to sign in which they promise not to text and drive.

  

  Even if your school did not receive the bracelets, we would like to encourage you to take the pledge online at TADD. The TADD campaign is also sponsored by a nationwide group of personal injury attorneys who wanted to make a difference and improve the safety of our teenagers and other motorists. 
  
  Texting while driving is a deadly epidemic, and we strive to prevent this epidemic from growing any more than it already has. Roswold Foundation for Injured Children, Roswold Law Group, and the other sponsors of TADD encourage everyone to help us spread awareness of the texting and driving problem and encourage everyone around you to do the same. Take the pledge and be a part of improving Missouri and Kansas road safety.

• WARNING: Is Your Child's Daycare Safe? Don't Be Afraid to Ask!
  Jan 20, 2011

  In recent news, Little Friends Daycare, an in-home daycare, out of Fairway, Kansas was shut down on Friday, March 12, 2009 after it was discovered that the operator, Lynde Ann Price had five infants in her home the previous day exceeding state limitations. A daycare provider in Kansas cannot have more than 3 infants at one time.

  One of the infants was found crying in a bathroom. Another infant was found alone in a bedroom with the door closed, still in a car seat and covered in blankets. Ms. Price admitted that she had forgotten that the child was in that room.

  The daycare was shut down temporarily by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, which called for immediate suspension of the day care's registration, which it felt was necessary to protect children's health and safety.

  Many of us work and as a consequence, have to leave our child in someone else's care. When we leave our children at a daycare or anywhere else, we expect our child to be taken care of, supervised, and safe. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Injuries are one of the top health issues for children. Children over the age of one area at a greater risk of suffering injury than children under the age of one. Children under the age of five are at the greatest risk of suffering serious injury from a fall than from other accidents while at day care.

  We cannot expect that minor accidents and injuries will not occur; however, injuries that occur due to lack of supervision in a daycare is unacceptable and unfortunately is one of the leading causes of child injuries and accidents.

  Simple steps can be taken, though, to reduce the risk of child injuries in daycares. Children should be within eyesight or closer at all times. The daycare should be safety proof and obvious dangers should be removed. Safety precautions will reduce the potential for child injuries; however, direct supervision can offer the greatest reduction in child injuries.

  Although mandatory laws and safety requirements are in place for daycare centers to abide by, it does not guarantee that a daycare follows those laws. A two-month nationwide daycare safety performed in 1990 revealed that 556 children out of 138,404 sustained injuries that required medical attention. The most common injuries were cuts and lacerations and bumps or bruises. More than 50% of all fractures and concussions sustained were caused by falls from climbing equipment.

  Don't be afraid to ask your home daycare provider how many children they are watching on a regular basis, how many they will watch at any given time, what child proofing they have done in their home, what kind of play equipment they use, and any other questions you deem important for your child's safety. You have the right to know. You should be able to feel as comfortable as possible when leaving your child in the care of another.

• Teens Against Distracted Driving
  Jan 20, 2011

  Technology advances provide us with endless possibilities and the opportunity to multi-task, be highly efficient, and communicate easily. With those same much welcomed advances, though, unfortunately, new problems arise such as more things to distracted drivers.
  
  Distracted driving, particularly texting while driving, is a growing phenomenon that has led to numerous deaths and even more injuries.
  
  To help spread the word and raise awareness of the problem with this rising trend, Roswold Foundation for Injured Children sponsors Teens Against Distracted Driving. We encourage you to visit the site and sign the pledge "2 NT TXT N DRV."
  
  According to Car & Driver Magazine, a recent study has shown that texting while driving is as dangerous than drinking and driving. This movement against distracted driving is very important because:
  
  

  1. 80 percent of all crashes arise out of a distraction according to a 100-car study by Virginia Tech.
  2. In 2008 alone, almost 6,000 people suffered fatal injuries in motor vehicle collisions that involved a distracted or inattentive driver and over 500,000 sustained injuries according to the NHTSA
  3. The problem is more common in younger, less experienced drivers under the age of 20.
  
  Help us spread the word and become a fan of TADD on Facebook.