"Window Opens to a Cliff": Parents Outraged After 2-Year-Old Falls From Daycare Center

The family of a 2-year-old child who fell from a private daycare center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, is strongly accusing the facility of negligence regarding safety management.

The parents of the victim expressed deep anger, pointing out that there were no safety devices in place despite the window opening directly to a steep drop outside.

Police and local authorities have launched a full-scale investigation into whether any actual regulations were violated.

Previously, at around 11:50 a.m. yesterday, a boy identified as A fell about 10 meters through an open window at a daycare center located in Cheoin-gu, Yongin.

As a result of the accident, boy A sustained severe injuries, including traumatic liver laceration and a fractured humerus, and was transferred to the Regional Trauma Center at Ajou University Hospital in Suwon, where he has been receiving treatment in the intensive care unit for the second day.

Boy A reportedly fell toward a wooden deck staircase after being near a window that had been left open for ventilation. In a phone interview with media, the father of boy A, B, said, "Although the daycare entrance and children's spaces are on the ground floor, because it is located on a slope, outside the window is a drop that goes down past the second basement level." He added, "My child suffered fractures from his right shoulder to the upper arm, and a CT scan showed severe bleeding with 30 to 40 percent of his liver appearing black."

According to the victim's family, the window where the accident occurred lacked safety devices such as anti-fall bars or railings.

The family explained that because there were not even trees or flowerbeds, anyone falling would drop straight from a considerable height onto a concrete floor or wooden deck stairs, making severe injuries inevitable.

Father B estimates that his child's injuries were somewhat less severe because he first hit the canopy of the pump room entrance on the second basement level during the fall before landing on the ground.

He continued, "Despite the space outside the window being extremely hazardous, the daycare placed storage items like teaching aids in front of the window frame and failed to install security bars." He criticized, "We trusted and left our child at a fairly large daycare center, and we never expected them to be so negligent about safety."

In fact, the daycare evaluation manual by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Childcare Promotion Institute stipulates that windows with a bottom edge 120 centimeters or lower from the floor must be equipped with window guards to prevent falls.

The nationwide standard daily and monthly safety checklist for daycare centers also requires periodic inspections to check for fall hazards and ensure the safety of window screens and other conditions.

Father B argues that if the daycare had properly followed relevant guidelines to prevent fall accidents, this horrifying incident would never have happened.

He also raised his voice, saying, "We can only say our child survived by sheer luck. Even an adult's life could be at risk from that height," and stressed, "The exact same thing must never happen again."

When contacted to confirm the circumstances at the time of the accident and whether fall prevention facilities were installed, a representative of the daycare responded that they had nothing to say at the moment.

Authorities have begun verifying the facts based on the claims made by the victim's side.

An official from Cheoin-gu District Office in Yongin stated that they conducted a first-phase on-site inspection on the day of the accident and reviewed closed-circuit television footage from the moment the victim fell. They plan to conduct additional on-site inspections to examine whether the daycare failed to fulfill its safety duties based on the safety checklist.

Separately, the jurisdiction's Yongin Dongbu Police Station is investigating the details of the accident by securing and analyzing closed-circuit television footage and listening to witness statements.

The police plan to apply charges such as professional negligence resulting in injury against those responsible if it is confirmed that the daycare violated regulations or was otherwise at fault.

(Photo provided by the victim's side, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.