Unsafe Premises

Just two weeks after 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner stood outside a Safeway in Arizona, fatally shooting six people and injuring 13 others, including US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, another shooter has shot dead two people and injured two others outside a Walmart store in the state of Washington. The two incidents are unrelated. Like everyone else in America, the thoughts and well wishes of our Washington DC injury lawyers are with the injured, the deceased, and their loved ones.

The latest tragic incident happened late today after three sheriff’s deputies arrived at the store to follow up on a bystander’s call that there was a suspicious looking person in the store. When deputies approached a man outside the store he tried to flee before turning around and shooting at them. The male shooter was eventually shot dead in the Walmart parking lot.

Two of the deputies were injured in the shooting. A young female, who CNN.com is reporting might have been a teenager, later died from her injuries. An investigation is underway to determine what happened.

A Washington D.C. television news team from 9NEWS NOW has found lead on a park fence at the Friendship Recreation Center Park located on Van Ness Street. The team took paint samples and sent it to the GPL Lab. The lab, located in Frederick, Maryland, also does tests for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

GPL experts say that the paint consists of 9.3% lead, which is considered a high concentration in paint chips. GPL said that this probably makes the fence a hazard. Hundreds of children play in the park regularly and may be at risk of sustaining lead poisoning or have already been injured or become ill as a result of exposure to the lead on the paint. Any injuries or death could be grounds for a personal injury or wrongful death claim or lawsuit against any negligent parties.

Department of the Environment has sent a risk assessor to get more samples from the fence. He says that he wants to determine if other park fences in D.C. also contain lead paint.

Lead paint has been banned in the U.S. since 1978. However, there are homes and other properties that were built before that year that may still have lead paint.

Lead poisoning can occur if a child ingests small chips of paint. There have been cases of lead poisoning that have been reported where infants became injured or died after chewing or sucking on a surface, such as a toy, that had lead paint. More than 50% or kids residing in urban areas are exposed to lead. Over 4% of children have lead poisoning. It can take years before medical problems attributed to lead poisoning can appear in children.

Injuries in children from lead poisoning can include kidney disease, brain damage, and learning disabilities. Swallowing just a one-inch paint chip can result in permanent brain damage.

If you or your child is injured or ill because you were exposed to lead, an experienced personal injury attorney can investigate your case and file a claim against any negligent parties. Negligent parties in a lead poisoning injury case might include, paint manufacturers, contractors, painters, real estate sellers, landlords, real estate brokers, the city or municipal government, toy manufacturers, toy companies, plumbers, and others.

Lead Paint Found On DC Park Fence Where Hundreds Play, WUSA9.com, August 21, 2007
Who is to Blame for Childhood Lead Poisoning?, Lead-info.com

Related Web Resources:

Friendship Recreation Center, Department of Parks and Recreation
Kids and Lead Poisoning, Familydoctor.org
Child Lead Poisoning and the Lead Industry, Sueleadindustry.homestead.com

Articles Posted in Unsafe Premises

Recent Shootings at Safeway and Walmart Raises the Question of How Liable Premises are for Violent Crimes

Lead Paint Discovered on Washington D.C. Park Fence Near Where Hundreds of Kids Play