What happens when a child injures an adult?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| A child accidentally dropped an 20 oz metal water bottle on my head from about 10-12 feet above me today. My preschooler was sitting next to me, but did not get hit. The parent apologized, but never once asked if I was ok. I said I probably had a concussion (I did) and that my preschooler would have gotten a skull fracture if that had fallen on their head. I ended up asking the parent for their contact information as I honestly had no idea how bad my head injury was and the parent declined. The location we were at then took an incident report and told me if I wanted that information I would need to file a police report. I’m not filing a police report, but I wanted to ask if it’s out of line to ask for a parent’s contact info if a child injures you (like a concussion level type injury)? I was in shock and going by what you do when you’re in a car accident. |
Anonymous
|
How old was the child - was it another preschooler like yours?
In general the law doesn't recognize criminal culpability in very young children. Are you just upset because the kid's parent is clearly anti-social on some level? I mean I get that, I do. They should have apologized profusely and been very concerned with your well being. But that said, if it was a young child I'm not sure what else you'd expect? |
Anonymous
| I think there was a thread about that earlier, was it Tyson? |
Anonymous
The children were 2 and 6/7. The parent said the two year old dropped the water bottle on my head, but I have no idea how the two year old who was under 3 feet would have dropped the bottle over a 4 foot bar, so I thought it was the 6/7 year old. I don’t know what I expected. I was in shock and kept thinking about what would have happened had it dropped on my 3 year old. From a damages issue, I had a friend who had to not look at screens for 20 days with a concussion and another friend who was put on leave by his hedge fund after getting a concussion because he lost so much money. I was thinking ‘what if i can’t work and make money’ and ‘what if i have a brain bleed and die’. |
Anonymous
| There’s no requirement to exchange information. And honestly I wouldn’t hand out my contact information to people I don’t know. I mean why did you want it? |
Anonymous
|
It's not out of line if you're upper middle class and familiar with personal liability. And having homeowners insurance cover accidents.
I don't think you can expect that awareness universally. People are afraid of other normal-looking people. Because of guns, road rage, crazy family members, the fact that with your name and address people can do quite a bit of mischief, etc. |
Anonymous
If something catastrophic happened I would have asked them to assume some of the cost or I would have asked the facility to do that. I’m not a lawyer or a doctor. It was about optionality…and the physical damage to my head was way worse than any car accident I’ve been in, so somewhere it seemed to make sense to exchange info. |
Anonymous
| Sounds fake. |
Anonymous
|
With a child of that age, I would assume nothing happens really. I go to urgent care and use my own insurance or pay. I might admonish the parent for not watching their kid more carefully.
If I suspected it was intentional or potentially criminal in nature (an older child or teen), I’d call security or the police and go from there. Clearly a kindergarten age child did not do this intentionally. Accidents happen. |
Anonymous
|
So you're saying all these "what if I can't look at screens for 20 days" scenarios. But you said you have a concussion. Were you diagnosed with one by a legit medical doctor? Did you go to the ER?
If you had the other person's contact info what would you do with it considering where you are now? |
Anonymous
| I don’t think the facility would have been culpable. This is also why you have insurance, and if they think they can put it on someone else, they will. Smart to try to get their info, but they’re not obligated to give it to you. It’s also smart to have an umbrella liability policy. We have a huge one to cover things like this. |
Anonymous
Why do you think so? I am not OP but this situation, unfortunately, sounds quite possible. |
Anonymous
A water bottle was droped on her head by a toddler.. |
Anonymous
Agree …where did this happen anyway OP? A mall or something? |
Anonymous
Yes, I have a moderate cervical concussion. I went to the ER because I had a horrible headache and my neck hurt and I wanted to rule out something like a brain bleed. I wouldn’t do anything knowing what I know right now about my condition. If I had a brain bleed and my life was transformed I would tell my spouse to get in touch with a friend who is a lawyer who could advise further. I make half of our HHI and a prolonged period away from work would not be good for my career or our finances. My spouse would also be smart enough to google the people and ensure we don’t hang any entanglements. I asked here primarily because I wanted to know if there was some etiquette you were supposed to follow. And if it had been my child I would have said yes, but I also would have asked if the person was ok. |