8a46a803a4649210VgnVCM100000e56411acRCRDapproved/thenational/Articles/Migration/2008-Q3Act urgently to end this senseless waste of young life7a46a803a4649210VgnVCM100000e56411ac____As seasons change to spring and summer, local newspapers throughout the world report on parental negligence cases that seem to blow in with the heat.<p>Taken as an isolated incident, the death on Wednesday night of a five-year-old girl who fell from an Al Ain balcony was a terrible tragedy that could have been easily prevented. But taken in aggregate - 220 children were killed falling from windows or balconies in 2007, up from 16 in 2001 - this incident is only the latest episode in a tragic trend that begs urgent attention from safety officials.</p> <p>It would be folly to assume that this worsening problem is somehow unique to the UAE. As seasons change to spring and summer, local newspapers throughout the world report on parental negligence cases that seem to blow in with the heat: children who suffocate in cars, fall from windows or drown in swimming pools. In June, the parents of a three-year-old girl who had survived a second-storey drop from her Seattle home were surprised to find their daughter sharing a hospital room with another child who had survived a similar fall. Staff at Seattle's Harborview Hospital treat some 40 to 60 children each year for the same accident - so many, they have taken to calling them by the lurid nickname "window jumpers". But while countries such as the United States see their fair share of these accidents, the child safety organisation Safe Kids USA reports that 18 children under the age of 10 die each year from window fall-related injuries - and that's in a country with more than 300 million people.</p> <p>Such a massive statistical disparity begs a crucial question that defies easy answers: Why is the number of window-falling child deaths rising so quickly in the UAE? Safe Kids USA has some interesting, if unsurprising, insights into the type of child who is most often a victim of such falls. "Children falling from windows are more likely to be male, under age five and playing unsupervised at the time of the fall", according to the organisation's website. "Window falls tend to occur in large urban areas, low-income neighbourhoods, and deteriorating and overcrowded housing. Children living in apartment buildings have the highest number of window fall incidents - five times more than children living in residences."</p> <p>Police in the UAE are already addressing this issue: next month, they wrap up a summer-long campaign urging parents to invest in child safety equipment and childcare services to keep such tragedies from multiplying. Window guards - for which insect screens are not an alternative - are inexpensive and easy to install. They should be standard items in every child's home. After all, parents are responsible for cultivating a safe environment for the few moments when they cannot keep children in their sights.</p> <p>But while the use of safety equipment and employing childcare will go a long way towards saving more children, perhaps UAE officials should begin to consider another, far more immediate response to such a glaring issue. It's time to begin pressing charges against those parents who, through error or negligence, allow their children to hurt themselves. While no parent wants his or her child to be killed or injured, the Government needs to exercise its power to change social and cultural attitudes.</p> 84NNOPINION200808300000002008083000000020110607191858100ARhttp://adedit.ad.atl.publicus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080830/OPINION/4823736666AD2008104823736662008083010000000050719