Balcony safety is often ignored. Is your child safe on the balcony?
Setting firm rules with regard to balcony safety, is protection for everybody and anybody who sits out on an upper floor balcony, not just for children.
The following tips should help prevent a family member or friend being injured:
- Ensure that the access door is securely locked at all times and put the key where your child cannot possibility reach it.
- Make it a rule that older children may not entertain their visitors outside if you are not at home.
- Make sure that there is nothing available to enable any child to climb up and hang over the wall or railings.
- Check that any railing uprights are close enough together so that a crawling infant cannot get through.
- Secure a safety “fence”, or even a sheet of perspex, firmly along open railings. Babies and small children can get through surprisingly small spaces.
- Place a row of pot plants in window boxes on the inside of the wall or railing to prevent children from hanging over and adults from sitting on the wall.
- Please make sure that none of your family, friends or guests is allowed to sit on the wall under any circumstances
A personal friend of mine sat on an upper terrace wall whilst having drinks with friends. At one point, she flung her head back and laughed uproariously at a particularly funny joke.
That was enough to upset her balance and she went over backwards. Her two-story fall was broken by a mass of shrubbery and soft wet ground. By the Grace of God, she survived, although she had severe injuries.
Some years ago, I was called to assist a man who had been sitting on a second story balcony wall.
He had leaned forward and picked up an 18 month toddler (his niece). He straightened up a little too quickly, lost his balance and fell backwards onto hard concrete. Neither survived.
If you live in an apartment or even visit friends who live in an apartment do remember to consider balcony safety. Somebody’s life may depend on it.
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