A tragic tale of ignorance: My local newspaper had a headline stating "4-year-old dies in freak accident"... The child was fatally injured by a FLAT SCREEN TV, through no fault of anyone except the consumer product safety com. and Big Business, who push these dangerous products. I’ve seen these latest consumer items in stores, sitting atop some dresser or TV stand, looking so mightily modern with their teeny tiny base. My (indoctrinated) consumer interest, seemed only focused on the size of the screen, not the lack of size of the base. It's unfathomable to me now, (especially after reading a child had died) that I didn’t realize how top-heavy these thingamajigs were. This is a very sad tale of how one family had to suffer from a lack of knowledge about physics. I am writing this today in hope that maybe, just one consumer (especially, with a small child) will think before they plop their hard earned cash down so they can cart one of these potential killers off to their home. thinkingblue
UPDATED: 4-year-old dies in freak accident
http://www.suwanneedemocrat.com/...
By Jeff Waters, Democrat Reporter
A four-year-old Branford girl died Sunday from injuries she sustained when a television fell on her at her home in Branford Saturday, according to Chief Deputy Ron Colvin of the Suwannee County Sheriff's Office.
Olivia Grace Leatherman died at Shands UF, authorities said.
Circumstances of the incident are unclear.
"It was a tragic, tragic accident," said Chief Deputy Ron Colvin of the Suwannee County Sheriff's Office. "I feel for the entire family."
Olivia's grandfather Kenneth Leatherman wanted to warn folks of the dangers TVs can create.
"If we can do that and reach out and save just maybe one child," said Leatherman. "I want to make sure people understand that regardless of flat screen, wall mounted or sitting on a stand, they need to be secured properly."
Nicknamed "princess" and "pumpkin," Olivia, a pre-school student, loved to work in the yard with her father. Her grandfather said her laugh was "absolutely contagious." She loved to dance anytime she heard music.
Olivia and her grandfather made up a game called sock monster, he said. Olivia would sit in a chair with her grandmother, whom she called maw-maw, while her grandfather would come around the corner and steal her socks off her feet and run into his office. Olivia would run in, grab the socks, then quickly run back to her grandmother, all the while laughing.
Kenneth Leatherman said his granddaughter loved visiting the local library.
"She'd go down there and make me sit at the table while she went down the aisles," said Leatherman. "She was a typical four year old. She was learning her numbers and able to read and recognize most the alphabet."
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Another sad story below:
Falling flat-screen TVs a growing threat for kids
Samara Brinkley dozed off just for a moment as she was watching cartoons on TV with her 4-year-old daughter.
Then "I heard the boom, and I woke up and I [saw] my child laying on the floor, and I [saw] a pool of blood coming out in the back of her head," said Brinkley, 26, of Jacksonville, Fla.
Dymounique Wilson, one of Brinkley’s two daughters, died last Wednesday when the family’s 27-inch television fell over on her.
Nearly 17,000 children were rushed to emergency rooms in 2007, the last year for which complete figures were available, after heavy or unstable furniture fell over on them, a new study reported this month. The study, published in the journal Clinical Pediatrics by researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, found that the such injuries had risen 41 percent since 1990.
The increase correlated with the popularity of ever-bigger flat-panel televisions that Americans have brought into their homes in that time, along with the entertainment centers and narrow, less-stable stands to hold them. Injuries from televisions alone accounted for nearly half of all injuries related to falling furniture during the study period — 47 percent.
Three-quarters of the victims of falling furniture are younger than 6 years old, and children that age "simply don’t recognize the danger of climbing on furniture," said Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
That makes it imperative that parents take steps to secure flat-panel TVs, which have narrow centers of gravity, and other top-heavy pieces, said Yvonne Holguin-Duran, a child safety specialist with University Health System in San Antonio, Texas.
"If we just take one glance around our house, [parents can] see what safety dangers on their level these children can get into," Holguin-Duran said.
Tougher voluntary rules have little impact
Like many other childhood bumps and bruises, most of the injuries related to falling furniture were minor. But 3 percent of the 264,200 children whose cases were reviewed from 1990 to 2007 were injured seriously enough to require hospital admission — most of them for head and neck injuries — and about 300 of them died.
The report "demonstrates the inadequacy of current prevention strategies and underscores the need for increased prevention efforts," Smith said.
The number of accidents has risen even as regulators have paid more attention to the problem since 2004, after ASTM International (formerly the American Society for Testing and Materials) published revised voluntary manufacturing standards to reduce the likelihood that big furniture pieces could tip over.
There is only so far current technology can go to make a modern television stable, however, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania pointed out in a 2006 study of the hazards of modern TVs.
Americans have fallen in love with flat-panel displays, which often pack as much as a hundred pounds of circuitry and glass into a panel only a few inches thick. They are top-heavy and are expected to balance, more or less precariously, on lightweight stands or to hang from wall brackets that are often inexpertly installed by home do-it-yourselfers.
By contrast, older cathode ray tube sets were big and blocky. While they, too, were, relatively unstable, with most of their weight at the front, they did incorporate a broader base with a lower center of gravity, which allowed them to rest more stably on the floor or on a tabletop.
And homeowners eager to get to watching their new sets frequently ignore instructions for how to secure their consoles.
"In our study population, none of the televisions or the furniture that they were placed on was secured," the Penn researchers said.
‘Keep an eye on your child’
In 2005, Congress took a stab at the problem. Rep. Allyson Schwartz, D-Pa., introduced legislation that would have required the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to set more rigorous standards for furniture that "poses a substantial risk of tipping" or that includes a glass surface or pane.
That measure died in committee. It again died in committee after Schwartz tried a second time in late 2007.
Until laws are strengthened to mandate safety straps and anchor mechanisms, parents are largely on their own in making sure their homes are safe, Smith said. Fortunately, he said, "following a few simple prevention steps" dramatically reduces the likelihood of injury:
Samara Brinkley will always regret nodding off for that one moment. Police theorize that Dymounique was trying to retrieve her Dora the Explorer book from atop the TV when it tipped off its stand last week.
"I want every parent out there please be careful," Brinkley said. "Keep an eye on your child, because you never know what might happen if you turn your back for a quick second."
Tony Porter of Greensburg, Ind., didn’t even have that chance.
His 2-year-old daughter, Vanessa, was at day care when a television set that wasn’t bolted down fell on her last August, breaking her cheeks, nose, jaw, palate and eye sockets. Vanessa was hospitalized in intensive care and subsequently underwent several operations to repair her face.
"Nobody should have to go through this," Tony Porter said. "No child of that age — of any age — should have to go through this."
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Flatscreen TV’s: The new silent child killer?
With falling prices and the ever increasing demand for Hi-Def content coupled with the desire for smaller less intrusive electronics, flat screen TV’s such as Plasma and LCD’s have quickly begun replacing traditional as-big-as-a-house tube/projection golden oldies. Many would think the real danger from having children and flat screens would be from the kids knocking the TV’s over resulting in a very unhappy papa and the child getting to go on a nice extended camping trip in their bedroom. But did you ever consider that flat screen TV’s could in fact be a dangerous child slayer lying in wait?
Take for example the store of 26 year old Samara Brinkley of Jacksonville, Fla as she details the horrific account of the day she fell asleep watching cartoons on the couch with her 4-year old daughter. Her nap however was short lived as it came to an abrubt and tragic end by a loud "boom". She awoke to the tragic sight of her daughter laying in a pool of blood after the families 27-inch TV fell over onto the child and ended up killing her.
tories and events like this aren’t uncommon however as in 2007, over 17,000 kids were rushed to the emergancy room for simliar accidents. Naturally as a TV gets bigger, the stand does as well if you choose to have it free standing. However, the bases aren’t nearly big or sturdy enough to support the ever growing size and weight of the top heavy sets meaning they are more prone to tipping. That’s why it is always smarter to attach your flatscreen to the wall where at least it is out of reach of most younger children who don’t understand the risks associated with big heavy objects and gravity. However, make sure that when mounting to a wall you do it correctly, (read: actually hit studs). If you you’re a stickler or anal about holes in the wall and other neat freak crap, they sell bondo and paint to consumers for a reason – use it!
Of course, the news of such incidents will prompt consumer outrage and "government action" where none is needed and is simply stupid to begin with. People like big TV’s. We purchase them even with children. For instance, if I install my TV in the wall and it falls off, barring any structural problems with the TV or stand itself, I myself am liable and fully responsible for the failing of the wall mount. Not a manufacturer of the TV or stand. That is the increasing problem with the good ‘ol U S of A is that we are trying to find more and more ways to fault other people instead of looking in the mirror.
Following the over reaction and public outrage that usuall ensues such stories as the one above means you will find all sorts of "helpful tips and guides" on how to be safer. Really you can just call these for what they are: "Anti-stupid guides". Why? Because everything you will ever see from a guide published after a revealing of a "major problem" such as flat screen TV’s tipping over on children, you will notice is nothing but pure common sense. Things like:
placing TV sets low on the ground and on the back of a stand
actually parenting (Gasp) and teaching kids not to play around or place toys on TV’s or TV stands
buying furniture with wide legs or bases
and the most important: always keep an eye on kids and what they’re doing
You see, it’s hardly rocket science. It is just plain common sense. Just use your head people. The store mentioned above was by no means the mothers or fathers fault. It was tragedy pure and simple. Hopefully these more publicized incidents will teach everyone to use their heads a little more.
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Falling Flat Screen TV Injuries and Deaths On The Rise Among Children
By Sean Fallon on May 13, 2009 at 8:20 AM
A new study reported this month revealed that 17,000 children were admitted to emergency rooms in 2007 for injuries related to falling furniture. Of those incidents, nearly half involved falling TVs.
Apparently, the 41% rise in injuries/deaths since 1990 correlate with the increasing popularity of flat screen tvs and the
narrow stands that often support them. CNBC cites a mother named Samara Brinkley as an example. Last week her 4-year old daughter was killed when the family’s 27-inch television fell on her. Only a fraction of the incidents reported each year end up being fatal, but it goes without saying that if you have children, flat panel TV’s with narrow centers of gravity should be secured. Better yet, wall mount them—it usually looks better anyway.
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How to Hang a Flat Screen TV