Accident At School: How to claim compensation for your child for the most common types of school accidents both on and off the school premises
Discover the extra safety precautions that should be taken to avoid your child having an accident at school; the most common types of school accident your child might suffer whilst at school; accidents off the school premises that your child’s school are responsible for – with access to our specialist solicitor free help both online and over the phone.
What safety precautions should be taken to avoid your child from having an accident at school?
A school has a very large duty to take care to avoid your child having an accident at school.
Your child is expected to be inquisitive, not fully aware of the dangers of many activities and not to take proper care of his own safety.
Precautions should be taken to keep your child safe at all times – the younger your child the more precautions should be taken.
What are the most common types of school accident?
The most common types of accident at school include:
1. Accident involving your child using equipment in the playground
The equipment provided by a school must take into account the age of your child and the risk of injury.
For example – imagine your son is using the climbing frame at school and slips landing badly breaking his arm. The school argues that children must be able to play, there are unavoidable dangers of providing equipment like climbing frames and no amount of supervision could protect have protected your son from this fall.
Albeit the points made by the school are valid – we all want our children to be able to have fun, but we also want them to be as safe as possible. The climbing frame should not be too high and very importantly the surface under the climbing frame should be able to cushion the fall of your child.
Modern surfaces include a kind of rubber which will cushion the fall of a child – previously bark was used to have the same effect.
The fact that your son broke his arm in the fall suggests that the climbing frame was too tall and the surface under the climbing frame was inadequate – it would seem the school did not take the proper child accident prevention precautions.
Child Accident At School
2. A slip or trip on the school premises
The school must be careful to look after the welfare of their children who are considered lawful visitors on the premises. They must keep the premises safe from defect.
If a child falls because there is a hole in the ground or a floor in the school is wet or slippery it is likely that the school will have to pay compensation.
To prevent injury to adults a cone is normally sufficient to warn of a slippery surface. For a young child a warning cone may not be sufficient – perhaps some form of shield to bar a child’s access would be better.
3. Accident on the school playing fields
A school should take proper precautions to ensure the playing fields are safe and free from danger.
A case we had some years ago involved a child who was cut by glass whilst playing rugby. Vandals were known to enter the school after hours and maliciously embed glass into the grass on the rugby pitch close to the touchline. My client was scoring a try when he was badly cut.
The school knew of the problem with the vandals and should have checked the rugby pitch properly before playing a rugby game to avoid an accident occurring.
Are there any other school accidents that happen outside the school premises?
“Yes” – two other types of accident are quite common which happen outside the school premises:
1. Accident during a school trip
Even though children are not on the school premises they should be supervised properly and kept safe from danger.
2. School bus accident
A school bus driver must take extra care with young passengers. For example – if a bus driver applies the brakes suddenly a child who is not correctly seated may fall and injure himself.
If a vehicle collides with the bus – the rules of the road apply equally to a school bus as it does to any other motor vehicle.
Click road traffic accident to see our article explaining how to claim compensation following a RTA.
3. School accidents at the local swimming pool
Many schools take younger children to have swimming lessons at the local swimming pool. Depending on the accident – both the school and the swimming pool provider may bear responsibility for your child’s injury.
Accident At School Summary
You now know all the most common types of accident a school that you can claim compensation for on behalf of your child and the safety duties owed by the school to your child.
We recommend you see our child accident claim article to learn why an accident involving your child on property where your child has no permission to be can still give rise to a claim for compensation,
Specialist solicitor free online / telephone help
If you child has suffered injury in an accident at school and you wish to discuss whether you might have a claim, wish to ask a question or have your claim assessed – we recommend you take a look out our specialist solicitor free help.
