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2019-06-27
By: Denise Koslowsky
Ahhh Summertime. The kids are out of school and seemingly endless days of backyard fun will begin! As much as you want to think your summer will be filled with sunshine and rainbows, accidents do happen and they happen more frequently during summer months. Being aware of backyard summer dangers is the first step towards a safer summer.
70% of drowning incidents take place between May and August.
During summertime, trampoline injuries account for as many as 13% of children’s accidents requiring hospital care.
Dog Bites to children 17 and under occurred most often in the summer months. Roughly 34% happen between the months of June to August.
If you have a pool, a trampoline or a dog, you need to be sure to protect yourself and all you have worked so hard to achieve.
Be sure you are super vigilant when you have young children at home or when you have guests visiting.
Drowning is the second most common cause of accidental death among children 14 and younger according to the CDC. About 750 children drown each year, 375 of whom do so within 25 yards of a parent or adult.
When it comes to pools in your backyard, insurance companies will require you to have proper safety equipment and generally require them to be located in a fenced backyard.
One of the best things you can do to protect your family is to have a pool alarm installed. There are four different types of alarms to choose from including alarms on doors leading to the pool area, alarms that let you know the surface of the pool has been disturbed, alarms that alert you to the fact that someone is submerged in your pool and alarms you place on a person’s wrist that will let you know if they choose to take an unsupervised dip.
You might be surprised to find out that injuries on playground equipment (including trampolines) are more common at home.
Home playground swings are responsible for more injuries in comparison to public playgrounds according to the CDC.
Unfortunately, even if you take all the recommended safety precautions, you cannot ensure that every child who jumps on your trampoline will stay safe. In an ideal world, your kid jumps and lands on their feet in the center of the trampoline but sometimes, kids lose their balance while bouncing and land on the padded springs or, worse, over the edge and on to the ground. Even something as simple as playing with a ball on the trampoline can be a threat. We have seen many cases where a child lands on the ball and breaks their legs.
Of course, you are sure your fur baby would never hurt anyone, but the sad reality is that it does happen.
In the US, more than 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each year and family dogs are the most common culprits.
Advocate Brokerage loves dogs and has handled a multitude of dog bite claims. Our business partnership with elite carriers allows for coverage for most breeds of dogs. However, once your dog has bitten someone, your insurance could be in jeopardy, especially if they have bitten more than once.
Final Piece Of Advice From Advocate
Be sure you protect yourself and your family from these dangers lurking in your backyard. A Personal Umbrella policy or Excess Liability Insurance gives you an additional level of coverage added to your existing insurance portfolio to help protect your personal assets from major claims and lawsuits. It will kick in when the liability limits of your homeowner’s policy has been exhausted. An umbrella policy will offer coverage against claims or lawsuits that happen related to your pool, trampoline, swing set or family pet.
The safety of our clients is very important to everyone at Advocate Brokerage. If you are unsure if your current coverage is sufficient, an excess liability policy will go the extra mile to keep your world, protected. Think of it as a Sleep Better At Night policy. If you have any questions about umbrella insurance, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at 914-723-7100.
