One of the many benefits of living in Titusville, Florida is the ready access to swimming pools for much of the year. Unfortunately, pools could also cause significant injury or death. The Law Offices of Anidjar & Levne can help you get the compensation you deserve if you got hurt or loved one died as a result of the swimming pool accident. Call us today for a free consultation. There is no obligation. A personal injury lawyer in Titusville, FL can help.
Types of Swimming Pool Injuries
There are many ways to get hurt in or around a pool. Here are a few of the typical kinds of injuries people experience from pools:
- Drowning. Many children and adults lose their lives to drowning. While not all of these tragic events happen in swimming pools, one should always supervise swimmers to prevent accidental drowning.
- Near-drowning. When a person has a close call in a pool, the lingering effects can be devastating. Because of the lack of oxygen to the brain, a near-drowning survivor can face a lifetime of learning disabilities, memory issues, and other lifelong disabilities. Some survivors spend their remaining years in a permanent vegetative state.
- Head injuries. If you hit your head when you fall outside of the pool or dive into the pool, you can sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The mental confusion or loss of consciousness from a head injury can cause a person to drown. A person with a head injury might appear unhurt to onlookers. If a person in a pool suffers a head injury, get them out of the pool immediately and take them for a medical evaluation.
- Spinal injuries. You can damage your spinal cord if you fall outside of or on the edge of a swimming pool or if you strike the side or bottom of the pool when you jump or dive into the pool. The injured person can drown from not being able to swim due to paralysis from the spinal cord injury.
- Drain injuries. The strong suction of a swimming pool drain can trap a person underwater, resulting in drowning or other harm. Make sure that everyone stays at least three feet away from the swimming pool drains. A person’s hand or foot, clothing, or hair can get sucked into the drain.
- Waterborne illnesses from unhealthy swimming pool water. The more people using a swimming pool, the more likely that there will be bacteria and viruses in the water. Some of the more common illnesses people contract from contaminated pool water include noroviruses, E. coli infections, Legionnaires’ disease, parasites, and other bacterial and viral infections.
Who Can be Responsible for a Swimming Pool Injury
Whoever caused the injury through carelessness can be liable for the harm that resulted. Some of the people who can be defendants because of their negligence include:
- The swimming pool owner
- The pool manufacturer
- The company that installed the pool
- The party responsible for maintaining safe, clean, uncontaminated water
- The individual who personally caused the injury, such as someone whose horseplay caused you to get hurt or someone who swam in the pool when sick.
How We Prove Negligence in a Swimming Pool Accident
Swimming pool accidents are a type of personal injury claim. Our swimming pool accident lawyers in Titusville, FL will have to prove the same three elements to establish liability as we would in any other type of personal injury case. To hold someone responsible for your losses, we must prove all three of these factors:
- A legal duty of care. A defendant must have owed you a legal duty of care. For example, a hotel that maintains a swimming pool for its guests has a duty to maintain the pool in a reasonably safe condition for people using the pool.
- Breach of the duty of care. It is negligence to fail to meet the standards of a legal duty of care.
- Causation. The negligence must be the thing that caused the injury to the plaintiff. The hotel’s negligence in failing to correct the known dangerous situation caused the harm.
Damages for Swimming Pool Accidents
Since swimming pool accidents are personal injury claims, you can get all the same kinds of damages with these incidents as you can with any other personal injury case. The damages you can collect will depend on the unique facts of your case. Some examples of the damages people can recover for a successful swimming pool accident claim include:
Medical expenses to treat the injuries, including things like the ambulance, emergency room, hospital, doctors, diagnostic work, and prescription drugs.
Long-term care, in a situation involving a catastrophic injury. The victim might have to spend many months, years, or the rest of her life needing daily assistance for medical treatment and personal care.
Lost wages, for the wages, salary, self-employment, and other income the plaintiff missed because of the injuries.
Disability, if the injured person is unable to work to support himself because of the harm sustained.
Pain and suffering, for the physical pain and mental anguish of the injuries.
Other intangible losses, which can include things like disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, and the spouse’s claim for loss of consortium.
How to Get Help for a Swimming Pool Accident Injury Claim
The Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine can help if the negligence of someone else caused you to experience a swimming pool injury in Titusville, Florida. Our swimming pool accident lawyers in Titusville, FL can investigate the accident, gather the evidence, and deal with the insurance company or file a lawsuit. Be sure to contact us as soon as possible as the Sunshine States’ statute of limitations limits the time we have to act.
Call us today, to get a free consultation. There are no upfront legal fees. Our fees come out of the settlement or award.
We Can Help.
