Dangerous games
During the summer holidays, parents should take care not only of their children having pocket money for ice cream, but also of the children’s safety. Left to their own devices, schoolchildren and kindergarten students, trying to occupy their free time with something, come up with a variety of, sometimes risky, games. How to protect babies? Together with the emergency services, we have compiled a rating of the most dangerous places in the summer. The above cases are taken from the Ministry of Emergency Situations reports for last summer. We hope that thanks to this publication there will be at least fewer similar messages dated this year. And how I wish they didn’t exist at all!
Sand quarries
Last summer, collapses in sand pits and pits left several children buried alive underground. One of these cases occurred on the outskirts of the village of Zvenyatskoye, Khoiniki district, Gomel region. Two brothers and their friend were playing in a huge sand pit two meters deep. Suddenly the edges of the pit collapsed, and all three were covered with sand. When the children did not return home after a while, the boys’ older brother became worried and went to look for them. He found the body of one of the schoolchildren under a sandy rubble. The boy called local residents for help, who independently continued the excavations until the police and rescuers arrived. The bodies of two other boys were later found.
Open balconies and windows
In the evening, in one of the Minsk apartments, a three-year-old boy, playing with his older brother, climbed onto the windowsill and leaned on the mosquito net. The fastening failed, and the child fell from the fourth floor window into the fenced children's playground. At this time, the parents were sitting in another room, where the mother was feeding her youngest son, who was not even a year old. Arriving rescuers used a hydraulic tool to cut off the lock on the playground gate. The emergency medical team took the child to the hospital. Half an hour later the boy died from his injuries. While kids can fall out of a window through carelessness, older children sometimes choose inappropriate places to play. For example, a ten-year-old Gomel schoolboy kept himself busy jumping onto the windowsill and then jumping from it to the floor. Mom was in another room at that time. At some point, the boy lost his balance and fell out of the eighth floor window. An hour later, the child died in the intensive care unit of a regional clinical hospital.
Playground
When sending your child to play on the playground, explain to him that he should not ride on faulty swings and slides or crawl into narrow holes. For example, a five-year-old resident of Smorgon (Grodno region), playing in the yard, caught his leg in a metal swing structure. The worried mother called rescuers, who, using a gas cutter, freed the baby. In the same area, in the urban village of Krasnoselsky, Volkovysk district, a ten-year-old boy stuck his head into the structure of a sports town and got stuck. The mischievous man was unable to get out of the “trap” on his own. Emergency Situations Ministry employees came to the rescue and used hydraulic shears to loosen the structures. The boys, fortunately, were not injured.
Electrical areas
A first-grader from the city of Petrikov, Gomel region, went for a walk at lunchtime. The boy chose... a regional power plant as a place to play. The student climbed over the substation fence, climbed onto a cell and accidentally touched a live cable with his head. The child received an electric shock. The station dispatcher reported the incident to the Ministry of Emergency Situations. The injured boy was taken to the intensive care unit of a local hospital with a 3rd-4th degree burn to the head, 2nd degree burns to the upper and lower extremities, and a traumatic brain injury. Children's games can have disastrous consequences not only near power lines, but also in any areas unsuitable for entertainment.
Open sewer manholes
While her parents were busy, a four-year-old girl from Minsk was running along the street and inadvertently fell into a sewer well two meters deep. Passers-by noticed the child falling into the hatch and called rescuers. Using a fire rope and a fire belt, the Emergency Situations Ministry rescued the girl and handed her over to the doctors. The baby received an open head injury and was taken to the city clinical hospital by emergency medical care.
- Competently - The main cause of injury and death of children during the summer holidays is being left unattended. After all, not only school staff and emergency services employees, but also parents are responsible for the children. They should remind children of the danger, teach rules of behavior and plan the rest of children and teenagers so that there is no time left for stupid pranks, says Vadim Vrublevsky, press secretary of the Mogilev regional branch of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
