What Can I Do If I Was Injured By Fireworks in Illinois?

 Posted on July 14, 2024 in Personal Injury

At a Fourth of July celebration last week, a South Carolina father named Allen Ray McGrew died after he placed a lit firework on his hat. The device exploded, killing him instantly. 

Mark McCormack, a resident of Wichita, suffered his own serious injury from using fireworks. While shooting off mortar shells one Independence Day, he failed to realize the cannon had bent. It went off in his hand, and McCormack was rushed to the hospital where he fought for his life. After a blood transfusion and surgery, McCormack woke up and realized doctors had amputated his hand and fourteen inches of his arm.

Fireworks can create beautiful displays, but they are also extremely dangerous. Because they can cause severe injuries, many states have at least some restrictions on their use and possession. Illinois is one of three states that bans most consumer fireworks.

This article will discuss your options if you are injured by fireworks in Illinois. For accuracy and clarity about your specific case, contact an Illinois personal injury attorney.

Who Is at Fault for My Fireworks Injury?

To determine who is at fault for your fireworks injury, first establish if anyone was negligent or engaged in reckless behavior. According to Illinois law, a person is negligent when he or she fails to take reasonable care to avoid injuries. For example:

• If someone aims a firework at you as a joke and injures you, even if the person did not intend to set it off, he or she may be considered negligent.

• Someone who throws firecrackers into a crowd as a prank may be considered negligent at the very least if it hits and injures somebody.

• Someone who lights a Roman candle or other dangerous firework in close proximity to others may be considered negligent and responsible for injuries caused by his or her actions.

If a person was negligent when setting off fireworks and you were injured, he or she may be liable to pay for damages you sustained from the injury.

What Do I Need to Prove?

To prove that the other party’s negligence caused your injury, you will need to show the following:

• Duty of care: The person who caused the injury, referred to as the defendant, had a responsibility to take reasonable care to avoid injuring you. Someone who has a potentially dangerous firework, for example, has a duty to take reasonable care that it does not injure others.

• Breach of duty: Once you have established that the defendant had a duty of care, show that he or she violated that duty. If the defendant set off a firework that is illegal in Illinois, that can be a great starting point for proving a breach of duty of care.

• Causation: Next, show that the defendant’s breach of duty directly caused your injury.

• Damages: To claim compensation, you must show that you suffered damages from your injury.

Contact a Bensenville, IL Personal Injury Lawyer

Negligence can be hard to prove, but the attorneys at Kaiser Law are more than up to the task. Using our extensive skills and experience, we have successfully recovered over $100 million in compensation for our clients. If you have been injured by fireworks through someone else’s carelessness, call 630-274-4400 to schedule a free consultation with a DuPage County, IL personal injury attorney today.