Aquatic Injuries

Jet Skis Injuries and Death

Jet Skis, also known as Personal watercraft cause many injuries and even death through out the United States, and at many vacation resorts around the world. They are dangerous because they are designed for professional and experienced users, and yet so many people with little or no experience are encouraged to use and operate them at their peril. Frequently, these users, on vacation at a resort hop onto a jet ski with little or even no instruction, or warnings. This can occur when a young man or women sitting on a beach offers the user their first opportunity to operate a Jet Ski. The design of Jet Skis are counterintuitive, and a person’s common sense of how it ought to operate is what leads to serious injuries and death. Jet Skis require sufficient distances and time to completely stop the vehicle. In addition, accelerating the Jet Ski permits easier steering of the vehicle. Users get into trouble when they naturally slow down and try to make a quick turn to avoid an accident. Despite their dangers, manufacturers of Jet Skis continue to increase the horsepower of their vehicles, and increase the likelihood of serious injury and death to innocent users. Manufacturers and resort operators are frequently more knowledgeable and in a better position to protect users from these obvious and known dangers of serious injury and death.

Have you or someone you know been involved in an aquatic injury and seeking compensation? Our experienced and knowledgable New York aquatic injury attorney can help you with your legal claim today!

Drowning Injuries and Death

Drowning in swimming pools, lakes, and in the ocean, also needlessly claims thousands of lives each year. According to statistics, drowning is the fourth leading cause of unintentional death for people ages 1 through 77. There are two types of drowning: Active, where the person is aware and fighting for their life, and passive drowning where the person simply disappears with no fight.

Drowning deaths and injuries can occur due to improperly prepared or unsupervised lifeguards. Frequently lifeguards are only young kids who lack experience and training to do their job effectively. They also may not be in the ideal physical shape to be responsible for the life of other people. Additionally a lifeguard can become bored, fatigued and lose their concentration and focus, especially if they remain in a single spot while overlooking the pool or beach area for an extended period of time. In this case they may not be as alert, and may miss critical signs of impending trouble that are taking place in the water. In certain instances, people have been known to forge lifeguard certificates allowing them to be responsible for swimmers and yet have no experience or training. Even in those instances where lifeguards are properly certified, problems arise in different standards of training. A lifeguard certificate can be received from different facilities and standards and training may vary significantly. This may lead to confusion for the lifeguard, and leave them ill prepared to perform their life saving tasks. It could also result in mistakes that cost a swimmer their lives.

Have you or someone you know been involved in an aquatic injury and seeking compensation? Our experienced and knowledgable New York aquatic injury attorney can help you with your legal claim today!

Man made lakes present unique problems as they have steep drop-offs with no warnings and often times no lifeguards on duty. Even the most experienced swimmers can become shocked, and disoriented by a sudden drop-off where they can no longer touch the bottom, panic and drown. There are certain rules that lakes are required to follow but these rules are lenient at best and difficult to enforce. Swimming accidents that lead to serious injury or death could have been prevented by posting signs, providing for rope barriers, and using other obvious safety measures.

Water Park Injuries

Accidents at Water Parks are also common and easily preventable. Steps can be slippery and dangerous due to black algae and lack of proper maintenance. The most common accidents at Water Parks are user’s body hitting something, collisions of two or more riders, tubes flipping over, and loading and unloading incidents. When the levels of Chlorine are not properly regulated by their operators, people have even gotten sick from high levels of bacteria in the water. Riders can also get seriously injured while going down a huge drop slide and unable to protect their crotch area experience a “Douche Injury,” which is painful and sometimes causes permanent injuries. The owners and operators of Water Parks are in the best position to protect users from these obvious and well known dangers of serious injury and death.

Diving and Spinal Cord Injuries

Diving and Spinal Cord Injuries also can occur around water, especially swimming pools, rocks, and piers. Diving related accidents can result in permanent paralysis, severance of the spinal cord, paraplegia and quadriplegia. Diving accidents can occur when the diving area is not large or deep enough and the diver hits the slope of a pool or the bottom instead of the deep water area. Horseplay can result in someone falling into the water and becoming injured, as can jumping into the water and landing on someone. The owners and operators of the swimming area are responsible to maintain the safety of these areas and are in the best position to protect swimmers from serious injury and death.

Have you or someone you know been involved in an aquatic injury and seeking compensation? Our experienced and knowledgable New York aquatic injury attorney can help you with your legal claim today!

If you or a family member were injured or killed from an aquatic related accident using Jet Skis, in a swimming pool, or while diving, call an experienced aquatic attorney at 212-725-8500.

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Michael Gunzburg is a New York Aquatic Injury Attorney serving the New York Metropolitan area, including New York City, Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland and Orange County.