California Ranks First in Dog Bite Injury Claims

How often do dog bite injuries in Poway happen? Whether you are in Poway or in another part of Southern California, it is important to know that California routinely leads the nation in the highest rate of dog bites, and this year is no different. According to a recent report in the Insurance Journal, California ranked first in dog bite injury claims based on data in a new report. While dog bite claims across the nation did decrease slightly, California continued to have more dog bite claims than any other state by hundreds of incidents. What else should San Diego residents know about the report, and what can we do to prevent dog bite injuries?

Report Says California Had More Than 400 Dog Bite Claims in 2018

The Insurance Information Institute (III) and State Farm conduct a report each year on dog bite injury claims. For the 2017 year, the report showed California ranking first in the total number of dog bite injury claims with a total of 488 claims. Across the country, the report for 2017 showed a total of about 3,600 claims, meaning that dog bite injury claims in the state of California accounted for nearly 14% of all dog bite injury claims in the country. A total of $18.7 billion was paid out in 2017.

How does 2018 compare? As we said, California again ranks highest in number of dog bite injury claims. At the same time, however, the figure decreased. The recent III and State Farm report listed a total of 409 claims out of California, with a country-wide total of 3,280 dog bite claims. Those figures means that California had approximately 12.5% of all dog bite injury claims in 2018, suggesting that prevention tactics are working in some capacity both in California and nationwide. The total payout in 2018 was $123, which was a 7% decrease from the previous year. Despite the fact that dog bite injury claims have decreased, they still remain much too high.

Risk Factors for Dog Bite Injuries

The report emphasizes that young children between the ages of 5 and 9 are at greatest risk of suffering a serious dog bite injury, and elderly persons also are at higher risk. In addition to these age-related risk groups, the report also notes that certain jobs can place a person at higher risk of sustaining injuries in a dog attack, including postal carriers, delivery service providers, and meter readers. In effect, jobs that require people to go to individual homes and into yards may be at greater risk of suffering dog bite injuries.

According to the ASPCA, there are currently about 78 million dogs in the U.S. that are owned as pets, and around 44% of all American households have a dog. It is extremely important for families with young children to recognize that any dog can bite, and that a majority of dog bite injuries happen in a household with a dog that is known to the family.

Contact a Poway Dog Bite Attorney

If you or your child recently sustained a dog bite injury, you may be eligible to file a claim for compensation. An experienced Poway dog bite lawyer can speak with you today about your case. Contact the Walton Law Firm for more information about how we can help.

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