Speak with houston drowning accident lawyerS today at (800) 863-5312
When summer approaches, many of us choose to beat the heat by hopping into the pool. In fact, 36% of children from the ages of seven to seventeen and 15% of adults in the United States swim more than six times per year. However, sometimes tragedy strikes in the blink of an eye and drownings occur. Houston drowning accident lawyers can help you work through that tragedy and toward recovery.
Survivors of drowning can be affected for the rest of their lives. They may experience acute respiratory distress, pneumonia, or even brain damage. Unfortunately, one third of all drownings are fatal. If your loved one drowned, talk to a Zinda Law Group personal injury attorney. Tell our lawyers about your accident through a free consultation. Call (800) 863-5312 today to get started.
How a Personal injury attorney in houston can help
Drowning is one of the main causes of death for children, especially children ages one to four. Understandably, parents of those children are often distraught after such accidents and are busy making end of life decisions about children unexpectedly. Here’s how a personal injury lawyer can help you in the event of a drowning accident:
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Available 24 / 7|Free ConsultationFiling Suit
Your lawyer can help you determine who to bring an action against in your claim. Also, in drowning cases where there could be many people and companies involved (the owner of the pool, the lifeguard, a lifeguard certification program, etc.), it can be difficult to determine who to sue for the accident. A lawyer can try to decide which person or company is most appropriate for you to name on the suit. Further, you have to file your claim within two years of the accident according to Texas’s statute of limitations, otherwise you cannot sue for the drowning accident at all. Speaking with an attorney will help you avoid missing important deadlines.
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Partner
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Available 24 / 7|Free ConsultationGathering More Evidence
Chances are, when the accident occurred, you did not stick around at the pool or beach to talk to people—especially if the drowning victim was your child. You likely stuck with your child when he or she received emergency care at the accident site and went to the hospital when the ambulance arrived.
A lawyer can help you go back and put some of the pieces together regarding the accident. This involves finding people who were at the accident and interviewing them and taking pictures of the accident scene to see whether the facility had the proper safety measures to prevent drownings. Lawyers on each side of the lawsuit will exchange that information so that they can work together to negotiate a settlement amount.
Jason Aldridge
Attorney
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Available 24 / 7|Free ConsultationNegotiating a Settlement Amount
Attorneys negotiate settlements by communicating back and forth between clients and insurance companies. To determine an appropriate settlement amount, the attorneys consider what conclusion they think a jury would come to if the case were to go to trial. If you are the parent of a child who drowned, the defendant might try to argue that you were partially negligent in causing the accident. It could be difficult to address those kinds of defenses without an attorney, but your lawyer will know how to prepare effective rebuttals.
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Cole Gumm
Attorney
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Available 24 / 7|Free ConsultationPursuing Compensation
Once you can agree on a settlement amount, you can receive compensation for your injury. If the parties cannot agree on the right settlement amount, you may have to seek compensation at trial. Your lawyer can help you make a decision if you find yourself in that position.
Compensation for victims of drowning accidents comes in the form of economic damages and noneconomic damages. Economic damages are the financial burden that you took on because of the accident, like medical bills and your missed wages from time you had to take off work. Noneconomic damages cover your pain and suffering, such as the pain and suffering of watching your child drown.
What to do after a drowning in houston
As soon as someone is discovered drowning in a pool, things can become a blur. Everyone is focused on resuscitating the victim and making sure he or she receives necessary care. Complete the following steps as you are able:
Resuscitate the Victim
If there is a lifeguard present, make sure that he or she has started rescue breathing and chest compressions if the victim is not breathing. Even if the victim has been unconscious for a while, there is still a chance to resuscitate him or her. If the victim was in cold water, prevent hypothermia by removing wet clothes and wrapping the victim in warm towels.
Call an ambulance so that the victim can be taken to the hospital for emergency care or recovery. Have the victim visit his or her doctor if he or she recovers from drowning. Visiting your doctor shows that you take your injury seriously. Keep track of all your appointments, including which healthcare provider you visited, what happened at the appointment, your diagnoses and treatment, and the cost of care.
Go Back and Gather Evidence
How did the lifeguard respond in the situation? What are the pool’s protocols when there is a drowning? Was the deep end of the pool clearly marked? Try to find and talk to everyone who was present at the accident, learn what you can from them, and get their names and contact information. Additionally, take pictures of where the accident happened. Find out the names of everyone involved in the accident. Try to do these things as soon as you can while the memory of the accident is still recent.
Speak with a Personal Injury Lawyer
Once you have your information in place, talk with a lawyer to see what you should do next. Do not wait until it is too late to speak with a lawyer about your accident.
Where do drownings in houston OCCUR?
Small children can drown in just two inches of water, so drownings could potentially happen anywhere water is present. However, there are some places where parental supervision is not expected, and often in those cases a lifeguard should make sure no one drowns. Here are the most common places for drowning accidents in Houston:
Swimming Pools
Houston stays warm throughout the year which means that pool owners maykeep their pools open the whole year. Because of this, it is fairly common for private individuals in Houston to own pools. Unfenced pools can create an attractive nuisance for children, meaning that even if the pool owner did not invite the victim over to swim, the owner could be liable for his or her injuries because the owner created a dangerous condition that is attractive to children.
Locally owned pools that invite the public to swim can also be the site of a drowning accident. In those cases, investigate or have your lawyer investigate the safety standards surrounding the pool’s hiring processes for lifeguards and other anti-drowning measures the pool takes. There are many precautions pools must take to prevent drowning, so there is a possibility the pool owner may have failed to take certain safety measures.
Apartment Pools
You or your loved one may have also experienced the drowning accident at your apartment pool. The pool may have been a large draw for you to live there, and it can be a truly refreshing amenity. However, your apartment still has a duty to keep the pool safe for its residents. For example, the door to the pool should be locked if it is an indoor pool and there is no lifeguard on duty. The outdoor pools should be fenced in so that children cannot swim or fall in when no one is watching.
Amusement Parks
At amusement parks, parents often expect lifeguards to pay close attention to children at play. Whether they watch children wade out of pools at the bottom of water slides or ensure no one stays underwater for too long at a wave pool, lifeguards must do their jobs well since lives depend on it.
Beaches
There are many beautiful beaches near Houston, and they attract all kinds of crowds, including spring-breakers and families. Members of both groups are at risk of drowning. People who swim or boat while intoxicated can become disoriented underwater and swim down instead of up. Children who are not carefully watched can wander into deep water and find themselves unable to swim back to shallow water.
Public Property
Finally, the accident may have occurred on property owned by Texas or Houston. Typically, municipalities have immunity from tort claims, so victims of accidents do not have a way to recover for the injuries they received because of a government employee or facility. Fortunately, Texas, unlike many other states, allows victims of torts to recover for accidents that happened because of government employees.
Who is responsible?
Now you are probably wondering, “Who is responsible when someone drowns?” It will depend who was at fault for the accident, which hinges on the facts of your case. Some of the biggest factors are who owns the body of water that the individual drowned in and whether there was the reasonable expectation that the person swimming there would be kept safe.
Private Owners of Lakes and Single-Family Pools
If someone invites your child over to swim at their lake or pool, then they might be held liable for the accident. You reasonably trusted that person to keep your child safe, and that person may have failed to do so—especially if that person does not have any barriers to accessing their pool or lake. Even if a child trespassed onto someone’s property, the owner could be held liable anyway because water is an attractive nuisance.
Local Owners of Lakes and Pools
If a pool or lake owner opened his or her property up to public use, then the company that owns the pool or lake could certainly be held liable for a drowned patron. It is the owner’s responsibility to clearly mark any dangerous areas and to warn patrons about the risks of drowning. If there is a lifeguard on duty, the owner has a duty to carefully hire someone with the right certifications or properly train the lifeguard for the job.
Even if the owner or employer properly hired and trained the lifeguard, the lifeguard may have been negligent on his or her own. Employers typically must take responsibility for the negligence of their employees while their employees are at work. Therefore, even if it is clearly the lifeguard’s fault that the victim drowned because the lifeguard was on his or her phone instead of surveying the water, the pool owner may still be liable.
talk with houston drowning accident lawyers at zinda law group
A loved one’s drowning can happen so fast, and there can be countless details in those critical moments of the accident that make or break a negligence case. You should not have to worry about the legal process, especially if you are trying to cope with the serious injury or death of a loved one. The Houston lawyers at Zinda Law Group want to help you hold the right person accountable for the accident so that you can focus on recovery. When you hire our legal team, we provide you with expertise and compassion.
If you or a loved one were involved in a drowning accident, call Zinda Law Group for a free consultation today. Also, we offer a No Win, No Fee Guarantee so that you do not have to pay us unless we win your case. Call us now at (800) 863-5312.
Meetings with attorneys are available by appointment only.
Jason Aldridge
Attorney
We have successfully represented clients in a wide variety of cases across the country.
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