Girl, 6, fighting for life after being struck by metal bollard

A six-year-old girl is fighting for life after a heavy metal street bollard toppled over and smashed into her head when she tried to vault it.The girl had attempted to leapfrog the 3ft-tall bollard when it came loose and fell on her.Detectives are investigating after it was claimed the local authority had been told the bollard was damaged, but did not properly fix it or replace it.A trader who works on the street in picturesque Lymington, Hants, said that three weeks before the incident he had reported it to the council, saying it had been damaged by a car and had become dangerous.Members of the public and traders who work on Quay Hill rushed to the young girl's aid after she was hit at around 6pm on Monday.She was with her mother, father and four-year-old sister at the time of the accident and was rushed to hospital with serious head injuries and placed in the intensive care unit at Southampton General Hospital.

She has been placed in an induced coma and her condition was is understood to be life-threatening.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/12076568/Girl-6-fighting-for-life-after-being-struck-by-metal-bollard.html


It seems viable that the bollard was reported. This is a tragic accident, what needs to be understood here, is if the council knew, that why they then did not fix this health hazzard? I think it is normally 28 days time allowed, which would get these negligent council workers off the hook I think. Though my next point would be if this bollard was or should have been roped off if the bollard was unsafe? Many questions need answering here.

Hope the poor girl recovers

I daresay it didn't occur to them that a kid would attempt to jump over it. It's best to stop them doing that kind of thing, even if a bollard isn't unsafe.

That being said, how were they to know it was unsafe, if like I say it was not roped off? I agree its not something parents should encourage children to do, but it seems the parents were there. I mean many kids play this game, and children will play these games, which the reality is little harm would have come to her by not being able to vault this, if this was fixed in place. Thus the council have a responsibility, where again I see no blame to be made on the parents part.

Maybe it's time kids stopped playing this game then. The bollard isn't a toy, and it's not there to be vaulted over.

Its no good going off in hindsight when if the bollard was fixed this acident would not have happened. Are you going to tell kids not to climb a tree, when after a child has fallen down from climbing one? Of course not as kids are adventurous and will just ignore if we say not to climb it in many cases. Its also missing the point if you are concentrating on children playing with bollards, when the main point here is that the bollard was unsafe and had been reported and it seems clear that the bollard was not roped off unsafe.

yes we know ragga...blame the victim....

the council has a STATUTORY duty to maintain its street furniture in safe condition.

Even the 28 day rule doesnt apply here.... by law they should have "made safe" upon notification...if only by ropeing it off or such like.

Kids will be kids, and do such things, and again the law does say that things like, well almost everything actually, must be safe in ALL forseeable use and MISUSE. Obviously there are limits (things like functional points and sharp edges) but that bollard should have been originally installed, and then maintained safe to "vault over" since that is a forseeable misuse, which any "reasonable person" could forsee.

and THAT...is , like it or lump it, The LAW.

It's natural for kids to hop skip and jump over things as they walk along.
One minute the little girl was acting like a normal child the next she was in a coma.
It's a horrible accident, but like many accidents it could have been avoided if the bollard had been in proper repair.

Its tragic.

How terrible for the family, a child being a child fighting for her life because someone messed up.