Holiday Shopping Safety and What to Do if You are Injured in a Store or Mall

Eventhough Black Friday has passed there are still great deals going on at a lot of stores and many people, possibly including yourself, will be rushing out to the stores sometime before the holiday season is over to buy gifts for family members and loved ones.  During your shopping trip your main concern may be finding just the right sales and getting to them before everyone else does and there is none left for you.  But this holiday season you will want to watch out for more than just great deals. 

November and December shopping draw the most people to stores and malls than any other month of the year.  When shopping this holiday season you will want to be careful of quite a few dangerous situations:

• Black ice - Black ice is usually the hardest to see at night because it is dark.  With many people going shopping after they get out of work and it being dark out there is sometimes a possiblity that there is black ice in the parking lot or on the sidewalk in front of the store.  Sometimes due to either a store not realizing it or a store's negligence the store does not put salt on the black ice and people slip and get injured. 
  
• Crowds - While crowds in and of themselves do not usually pose a problem excited crowds may.  If there is a sale that everyone is waiting in line for while waiting for the store to open there is a risk of be knocked down and trampled on because of everyone rushing into the store at the same time.  There have even been reports of shopping injuries where people have died from being knocked over and trampled on.  Many other shopping injuries include broken bones, cracked skulls and bruises. 
• Shopping Carts - There are two groups of people that can be injured by shopping carts.  Sometimes adults can suffer bruises and broken bones if someone is careless with their shopping cart and slams it into you but the other group is much more common suffer from injuries and usually much more life threatening.  Babies and children can suffer shopping cart injuries many different ways and usually result in head injuries, broken bones, bruises, hemorrhaging, and sometimes death. 
  
• Escalators - Sometimes people get distracted on escalators, especially children.  If you are taking a child shopping with your make sure that their shoes are tied properly and not hanging on the floor at all, try to dress your child in pants that do not make contact with the floor and are not freying and make sure your child realizes never to go the opposite way the escalator is going.  If a mechanical error occurs on the escalator while you are on it try to remain calm and get yourself and your child safely off of the escalator without injury.
  

Aside from these dangers there are many other dangers that you may encounter while shopping such as a spill on the store floor or items stacked unsafely in the store.  If you or your child is injured this holiday season while shopping you should seek immediate medical help, report the issue to the store and contact a personal injury lawyer about starting a lawsuit against the store for negligence.  If you would like to speak with an injury lawyer and live in New York or New Jersey contact Frank J. Dito Staten Island personal injury attorney at 718.979.4300 or 800.976.4904.