Toddler's Death Highlights Danger of Falling Furniture
By: Adam Rodriguez
Updated: April 5, 2012
A heart-wrenching Facebook video shows two-year-old Sydney Chance with her uncle.
Police say Sydney was playing with her brother in their Conway apartment Wednesday when a dresser fell on her. The toddler was flown to a little rock hospital where she passed away.
Frightening video from the Consumer Product Safety Commission shows just how dangerous furniture can be. The commission says falling dressers, televisions appliances send 25,000 kids to the emergency room every year in United States, killing 25.
Alison Rose, public safety coordinator at Arkansas Children's Hospital, says curious kids won't hesitate to climb on furniture to get something they want.
"The best thing you can do to prevent tip over injuries in your home is to anchor. By anchor, I mean to secure to the wall, or the floor all heavy furniture, appliances and even televisions.
Especially
flat screen televisions, Rose says. They not as heavy as old analog
sets, but just as dangerous.
"They're
still quite heavy, especially when they fall on a small child,"
Rose says. "Because of the way they're built, they're often easier
for a small child to pull down off the top of a shelf or piece of
furniture."
