Child deaths spark warning of TV dangers

PARENTS of young children have been warned about the dangers of unsecured television sets after a spate of tragic accidents.

The warning follows the death of Tallaght toddler Hayleigh Coghlan-Burke last week. The two-year-old grandniece of Irish running star, Eamonn Coghlan, was killed instantly when a TV set toppled over onto her as she climbed onto a cabinet in a relative’s house.

She was the second young child to die in this way here in the past year, but accident reports in Britain and the US show there have been many more victims in recent years.

In 2006 alone, A&E doctors in the US reported treating 2,600 children under the age of five who had been injured by falling TVs.

That year a Texas family began a campaign to warn others after their 22-month- old daughter was crushed to death by a TV that had been on a metal stand.

But despite the publicity, there have been numerous incidents there and in Britain where recent victims included a three-year-old girl killed by a TV that fell from the top of a chest of drawers and a 13-month-old boy who was crushed, apparently after tugging at a drawer on a unit supporting a TV. Most of the children were two or three years old — strong enough to climb onto or pull at a TV set but not strong enough to survive the consequences.

Dr Alf Nicholson, consultant paediatrician at Temple Street Children’s Hospital in Dublin and a member of the European Child Safety Alliance, stressed such accidents were rare. He said: “It’s quite uncommon, certainly compared to the kind of serious accidents we see most often — children without helmets coming off bicycles, near-drownings, fire and particularly road-related injuries — and it would be far more common for a child to fall down stairs than for this to happen.”

But he said the dangers of falling TVs were less obvious than some of the more familiar hazards.

“A very heavy object being pulled onto a child is very dangerous,” he said.

Anecdotally, some of the accidents reported in recent years are thought to be attributed to a trend towards freestanding TVs and larger TVs — particularly where a larger set is supported on the same bracket, stand or unit previously used for a small set.

Tips for securing freestanding furniture such as bookshelves and TV stands are included in a child safety DVD, produced jointly by the Health Service Executive, the Road Safety Authority and the Electricity Supply Board.

The Child Safety Inside and Outside the Home DVD, which is geared towards both parents and children, is available free of charge from the Department of Public Health.

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