CPSC report details injuries and deaths linked to child products
People tend to be more responsible and protective once they become parents. Most California parents want to provide safe products for their children’s use. However, not all products are safe for children. In fact, even some products designed for children pose dangers. These unsafe products include some cribs, mattresses, playpens and car seats.
Some nursery products have a higher rate of likelihood for injury or death, as reported by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The CPSC has provided statistics for injuries and fatalities related to defective child products. According to the report, in 2012 nearly 78,000 cases of emergency room visits for children below the age of five were for injuries linked to, but not necessarily caused by, the use of nursery products including car seats, gates and barriers, strollers, high chairs and mattresses. Cribs and mattresses, car seats and baby carriers, high chairs and strollers accounted for almost two-thirds of these injuries, which were primarily to the head and face due to falls.
Sometimes defective products lead to deaths. The CPSC reports that nursery products were involved in, if not necessarily caused by, 333 deaths of children younger than five from 2008 through 2010. Cribs and mattresses, cradles and bassinets, car seats and infant carriers accounted for most of these fatalities. Many of those victims died as a result of drowning, strangulation and positional asphyxia.
The CPSC stresses that these figures do not necessarily indicate causation in every case. Nonetheless over the years juries in civil lawsuits have found a number of infant and child products were unreasonably dangerous and resulted in injuries and deaths. When this happens, the child’s parents or legal guardians have the right to file a product liability lawsuit on behalf of an injured child, or to recover for the wrongful death of a child.
Source: CPSC.gov, “Injuries and Deaths Associated with Nursery Products Among Children Younger than Age Five,” accessed on Feb. 24, 2015