40,000 homes in the UAE to have windows made safe

The safety device to be fitted restricts the opening of a window or balcony door to a maximum of 10 centimetres in accordance with the Department of Municipal Affairs regulations.

Seen here is a partially opened window, which, according to a safety inspector, is one of the easiest ways for  a child to fall out of his/her apartment and die. Lee Hoagland / The National
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ABU DHABI // Safety devices will be fitted to the windows and balcony doors of more than 40,000 homes in towers to stop children falling to their deaths.

The device stops windows and balcony doors opening more than 10 centimetres, in accordance with the Department of Municipal Affairs regulations.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Properties (ADCP) launched the programme yesterday.

Doctors and child-safety experts across the emirate say the move will help to reduce the risk of children falling from high rises.

“This is great,” said Dr Taisser Atrak, head of the Mafraq Hospital paediatrics department and a child-safety expert.

“I mean 40,000 safety devices for the windows – it will help to save lives.”

Abdulla Al Suwaidi, managing director of ADCP, said the company had a duty of responsibility towards residents and window safety is of paramount importance.

“By the end of this installation programme, over 40,000 family homes will have been visited by our specialist installation teams and we expect to have installed approximately 230,000 fall-prevention devices to internal windows,” Mr Al Suwaidi said.

He urged residents to permit access to their home by its workers to complete the task.

There has been a series of fatal falls from towers across the country over the past 15 months.

This month a Pakistani boy, 4, fell to his death from a sixth-floor flat in Sharjah, while in the capital a Syrian girl, 9, died after falling from her eighth-floor home in Hamdan Street.

Last year, five children died falling from high rises.

But Dr Atrak said while the move might prevent some accidents, more needed to be done to eradicate the risk completely.

“I don’t think it is enough,” he said. “There are lots of high-rise buildings. I think more than 40,000 devices is needed but it is definitely a step in the right direction.

“It will take more education, more awareness. I think the key for this is partnership between all the stakeholders though partnerships between the schools, the doctors, the Minister of Interior and the Health Authority [Abu Dhabi].”

Building codes, safety devices and child-safety awareness campaigns are key to reducing the number of preventable deaths and injuries among children, he said.

Abu Dhabi Municipality recently introduced an awareness campaign using posters.

By the end of next month, “high-quality posters for window and building safety will be ready and pasted in buildings”, said Abdulaziz Zurub, director of health, safety and environment at the municipality.

“We are planning to paste a poster in front of each flat in the emirate. The posters will advise parents, landlords and children as well about the safety norms. We will target three categories to educate in the poster.”

Parental accountability is also of paramount importance, said Dr Atrak.

“Parents who leave kids with unqualified care givers, leave them in balconies to play – that is negligence, in a way. Unintentional negligence.

“They have to be held accountable and the child protection law should deal with that. We have to have to take that responsibility very seriously.”

Adults must understand that children can open windows easily, added Mr Zurub, who cautioned that “keeping small children at home alone really is very dangerous”.

Dr Joseph Manna, a consultant and emergency physician at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in Abu Dhabi, also welcomed the move.

“We have to do something,” Dr Manna said. “It is easy to blame the parents but anyone who has children knows all it takes is a second to take your eyes off them and they can do anything, so I think we have to have some safety measures.”

Dr Manna personally dealt with the aftermath of three children who fell from a high rises in the emirate in the past 18 months.

The move to reduce the risk of these tragedies has to be a good one, he said.

“I really know that it is a shame when we see these children fall out of these windows and maybe this is the right way [to prevent that],” Dr Manna said. “I believe it is a good move and I believe it is necessary with all of these tall buildings that are around.

“So I am hoping it definitely makes an impact on this because I think many people who read the newspaper or listen to the radio understand these things are happening but, until it happens to them, they don’t know it is a problem.”

Dr Manna said more awareness campaigns through channels such as the radio would help spread the message.

jbell@thenational.ae

* Additional reporting by Anwar Ahmad