Madison Personal Injury Attorney

Diving Board Injuries

Water-related activities are the number one cause of spinal cord injuries resulting from sports and recreation activities. There are roughly 13,000 diving-board related injuries are sufficiently serious to be brought to the hospital each year. Of those 13,000, roughly 800 spinal cord injuries occur each year.

The major accident patterns that are associated with swimming pools are striking the bottom due to insufficient depth; striking the sides of the pool; and hitting protruding waterpipes, ladders, or other objects in the pool.

Diving should be strictly prohibited in shallow water. Over half of the backyard pools in the United States are above-ground vinyl pools that have a constant depth of 3 to 3.5 feet. This means that over half of the pools in the United States should not have any diving allowed. Children and adults alike are injured, sometime quite seriously, when the attempt to dive in.

There are four major factors which cause spinal injuries in aquatic facilities:

1. Diving too deeply off of a diving board or the side and striking the bottom of the pool
2. Diving too far out off of the board or the side and hitting the upslope portion of the pool or pushing off of the wall and hitting the upslope
3. Diving or sliding into shallow water and striking the bottom
4. Striking an underwater object

The position of the head and neck, the impact site, and the victim’s direction all determine the resulting spinal cord injury. Whenever an individual hits the bottom, it is important to assume that there will be a spinal cord injury of some sort and take the necessary precautions. This includes not disturbing the spinal cord in the process of removing the victim from the water.

If you have experienced a spinal cord injury due to a diving board, contact the Madison diving injury lawyers of Habush, Habush, & Rottier, S.C. at 1-800-822-1690 to discuss your case and to schedule an initial consultation.