When many of us think of nursing home injuries, we imagine slip and fall accident or emergency medical procedures. While these are nursing home injuries which do occur, there are other types of injuries which occur in care environments that do not get much attention. For example, nursing home parking lot accidents can be quite common. These accidents can involve staff who are exhausted after a shift or who are negligent when driving. They can also involve residents who wander into a parking lot due to incorrect supervision.
Nursing home parking lot accidents in Hollywood are often preventable and are caused by a number of situations, most commonly:
- Staff being given too many shifts or long shifts which leave them exhausted and more prone to fatigued driving and subsequent accidents. Frequent changes in shifts can also cause sleep disturbances which can lead to fatigue and car crashes.
- Understaffing, which allows residents to wander into parking lot areas.
- Lack of direct supervision, which can cause residents to wander into a parking lot or even to get into a car.
- Poor training on the part of staff members who are expected to drive as part of their job.
- Poorly designed parking lots.
- Excessively busy parking areas, without clear designations for guests, deliveries, and staff parking.
- Poorly maintained parking lots.
- Lack of control over front doors, gates and other barriers, allowing residents to wander around parking areas and other high risk areas.
- Poorly lit parking lots.
Many of the above issues can be fixed with correct lighting, due diligence and proper maintenance. If you have an elderly family member in a nursing home, make sure to evaluate pedestrian safety. Is the nursing home near a busy traffic area or busy parking lot? If so, what precautions are taken to ensure residents are not injured? How are exits secured and what kinds of supervision are available? If your family member has a form of dementia, it may be especially important to ensure they cannot place themselves in danger.
If you have been in a parking lot accident while visiting an elderly loved one in nursing home or if your elderly loved one has been injured in a car accident in the nursing home parking lot, it’s important to ask questions. Contact Flaxman Law Group at any time to arrange for a free accident consultation to discuss your situation if you or a loved one have been injured in this way. You can always reach us online or by calling 1-866-352-9626 (1-866-FLAXMAN).