New Jersey residents arrange their TVs in a variety of ways. While some of the newer, lighter, models can hang directly on a wall, many times family will leave an older “box” model of TV on a dresser or other furniture that might not be suited to hold them.
Perhaps because of this, doctors have raised concern about the increasing number of accidents involving televisions and small children. Since 1990, the child injuryrate has almost doubled with respect to TV accidents. During 2011, over 12,000 children, most of them under five, suffered a variety of injuries because of a falling TV.
Often, the child was climbing the furniture on which the TV rested and inadvertently caused the TV to fall on him or herself. Head trauma was one of the more common types of injuries that the doctors noticed. Some of these injuries were serious and could leave the child requiring long-term care. A few of these injuries even proved fatal.
The doctors encouraged homeowners to take reasonable precautions to secure their TVs by using equipment designed especially to hold a TV in place on stable and appropriate furniture. Certainly, parents of small children may wish to heed this advice.
Anyone, however, who invites small children into their home as guests from time to time should consider taking these precautions as well. In New Jersey, homeowners owe a certainly level of care to guests, including children, which may include taking some steps to make the home safe. The failure of a homeowner to do so that leads to an injury could mean that the owner will have to pay compensation to the parents of an injured child in the event of a lawsuit.
Source: ABC News, “‘Alarming’ rise in kids injured by falling TVs,” Lindsey Tanner, July 22, 2013
