The U.S. CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) estimates that around 43,000 people receive injuries each year because of tipping or falling furniture or TVs. Our Galveston personal injury lawyers point out that 59% of those injured are children.
349 people died between 2000 and 2011 from falling TVs, appliances, or furniture. 84% of the victims were children below the age of 9. Falling TVs, mostly of the flat screen type, accounted for 62% of the deaths. In 2011, 41 people, mainly children, died when a large TV fell on them.
The CPSC indicates that 3 children per hour, or 71 per day, receive injuries from falling furniture or TVs every day, and one dies every two weeks. 70% of the injuries result from falling or tipping TVs. Our Galveston personal injury lawyers note that the injuries include traumatic brain injury, neck injuries, and abdominal trauma.
A study by researchers from the Nationwide Children’s Hospital, published in the Journal of Clinical Pediatrics, showed that injuries from falling flat screen TVs or heavy furniture had increased by 41% since 1990. In 2007, almost 17,000 children were rushed to emergency rooms for such injuries. The increase in falling furniture or TV injury numbers tracks the rise in popularity of the flat screen panel TV.
Data shows that about 36% of the injuries and deaths occur because children climb the furniture or TV stand. Flat screen TVS, which often weigh about 100 pounds, are top heavy and inherently unstable. The narrow stands they sometimes rest on are easily tipped over. And when hung on a wall, the Galveston personal injury lawyers at Denena Points, PC emphasize that the installation is often performed in haste without adequate attention to safety.
A study by University of Pennsylvania researchers in 2006 regarding the safety of flat screen TVS in the home found that not one of their study participants had properly anchored or strapped down the large, top heavy TV or the furniture it was placed on.
At present, only voluntary safety standards exist to encourage manufacturers to make flat screen TVs more stable and less dangerous in the home. But our Galveston personal injury lawyers remark that those safety standards have done little to modify the design of the devices. By their very nature, the flat screen TVs are narrow, heavy, and with a center of gravity that tends to make the TV fall forward if it becomes unstable.
To prevent dangers to children from falling furniture or TVs, the TVs should be set far back on their stands and anchored with safety straps. If hung on a wall, L brackets should be used, and they should be anchored into structural supports, not merely suspended from drywall. And since children sometimes climb furniture to retrieve toys or remote controls, you should keep the TV area free of all temptations to climb.
Click the link to learn more about the injury dangers that falls represent to children.