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Electrical Injuries During the Holidays

It’s the time of the year where you let electrical extension cords sit in the snow, have projectors beaming light at your home in the cold of the night, and it’s no wonder there are more shocks. Essentially people don’t understand the risk they’re taking when they play with electricity through the winter months because of the risk of electrical injuries during the holidays.

However, not every electric injury is due to a person’s own decisions. There are many times when things are incorrectly installed or repaired, and the injuries are far too serious. Even product defects can lead to electrical hazards. This is where you need a personal injury attorney to help with your case.

Electrical Hazards are Fire Hazards Too

The National Fire Protection Association found that 30% of home fires in a year happen during December, January, and February. Part of this comes from cooking with electric cooking methods such as Instant Pots, Crockpots, counter roasters, and more. These products aren’t foolproof and can have serious defects that can lead to fires.

After This Is Us showcased a Crockpot leading to a house fire, it seems that everyone has been a little more careful about unplugging things at night. These electrical hazards often come from worn through cords, and that can be difficult to assign responsibility to. However, there are times when there is an outright product defect.

Now that so many electric cooking devices have timers to switch off, is your device didn’t switch off, you may be able to assign partial responsibility for injuries to the manufacturer.

Shock Risks

Safe decorating practices aren’t something you hear about regularly. But more people are hiring others or asking someone to come by and set up their lights for them. The result is an unsuspecting person receiving a nasty shock when working with what seemed like safe materials.

The biggest shock risks happen outside the home. Outdoor lighting should have an “outdoor” or weather-safe label. Take photos of the boxes, or, better yet, keep the boxes for any of your outdoor decorations. Anything that states it’s weather safe and then leads to a shock because of rain or sleet contact may be a problem with the manufacturing or materials handling.

Another major concern is the outdoor outlets. If your home was altered by the previous owner, you might consider having an electrician take a look at your outlets. When leaving holiday lights plugged in, the small door handling above or to the side of the outlet won’t stop water from getting onto the plug. If the outlets aren’t weather-safe or weatherproof, then you may take a serious risk every time you grab the plug.

Helping a Neighbor

It’s one thing to work on your own home knowing that your home is generally safe and that you are in control of the materials you use. But if you’re helping a neighbor decorate, you might want to carefully consider looking through the extension cords and lights before plugging anything in, which means that a frayed cord could lead to a serious shock.

When providing help to a neighbor, you don’t want to be critical of their decorating preferences. But outright safety hazards are a big deal. If your neighbor believes it’s no concern, then offer to provide help when they’re using different cords or to help decorate with items that aren’t plugged in.

Helping a neighbor should be a fun and friendly winter activity. But that doesn’t mean you’re locked into taking serious risks with your health. Always stop what you’re doing if you believe there is a risk for electrical shock.

Electrical injuries during the holidays can lead to brain and nerve damage that may affect you through the rest of your life. It’s never a good idea to put your health at risk over a frayed cord.

Contact Young, Reverman & Mazzei for Help Seeking Recovery

In your home, or when helping out a neighbor, there should be very limited risk of electrical injuries during the holidays. However, every year, there are electrical accidents when people are hanging up or taking downlights. Then there is the risk that comes with cooking using electrical appliances and more.

Electrical personal injury risks aren’t to be taken lightly. Not only does it make it difficult for anyone involved to recover financially, but it can cause issues between homeowners and contractors, or even between neighbors. If you were shocked and received serious injuries because someone else did not properly complete work or because someone did not maintain their home get legal help.

Contact Young, Reverman & Mazzei to schedule a consultation with one of our Experienced Personal Injury Attorneys in Cincinnati and learn whether you have a case or not.

Jay A. Bolotin is a partner at the injury law firm of Young, Reverman & Bolotin. Serving the people of Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, Jay dedicates his career to helping clients in the tri-state area obtain financial compensation after suffering serious injuries. He focuses his practice on cases involving car accidents, trucking accidents, dog bites and animal attacks, and other types of personal injury incidents.

Years of Experience: More than 25 years
Registration Status:: Active
Bar Admissions: Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Cincinati Bar Association