Don't Let Australian Kids Plummet to Their Death
Australian Claudia Fernandez knows from experience that it only takes a few seconds for a small child to have a life threatening accident. After Fernandez barely stopped her daughter, three-year-old Paloma, from plummeting over the balcony edge of their apartment home in Zetland, she decided to put a safety net over her balcony. But Fernandez's apartment building prohibited her from installing it.
With housing prices through the roof, more and more people are raising their families in high-rise apartments. A hospital near the Fernandez residence treated 169 children who had fallen, most of them at home, over a three year period. Clearly Australia's safety laws need to keep up with the growing trend of raising families in apartments.
Tell Australia's law makers to write legislation that requires better child safety devices on windows and balconies.
We the undersigned ask that you listen to Claudia Fernandez who could easily have lost her child if she had been just a few seconds late in pulling Paloma back from the balcony rail of her apartment building. Fernandez has been prohibited from installing a safety net on her balcony by the owners' corporation of her building. This can not happen. No misguided idea of apartment aesthetics is more important than Fernandez's right to safeguard her child. Meanwhile your local hospitals have seen an appalling number of children injured from falls. Please require better child safety devices in windows and balconies of high rise apartment buildings.
