Child safety requires constant vigilance on the part of parents and anyone who takes care of small children. But even those persons can be led astray, as with accident injuries from defective products that claim to be safe for kids. That was the case with a 16-month-old boy who was found strangled to death in his crib by his mother in 2007, with a window shade cord wrapped around his neck.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, around 500 young children have died due to such cords since the early ’80s, or about one per month. Clearly, such shades and blinds are potentially deadly products, yet the federal government hasn’t mandated that their manufacturers make them more safe. Instead, it’s let the industry police itself.

But that hasn’t done much good, as evidenced by the fact that the fatality rate hasn’t changed much over the years. Though the CPSC has the authority to demand improvements, its refusal to do so may have meant more child deaths. The window shade industry has recalled many of its products, yet adjustments have been insufficient to reverse the horrible trend.

What can be done? Legal action to force the issue could help. Then better safety devices could be integrated into window shades so that, if a child becomes entangled, the cord automatically is released, rather than remaining taut and tight.

Cords also can be designed so that they don’t form a potentially deadly loop. Such loops often form on inner cords of blinds which aren’t meant to be pulled, but rather to raise or lower the blinds’ material when outer cords are pulled by hand.

Even when applied, some such safety devices have broken or failed to function, resulting in child deaths. In fact, it only takes about one minute for an infant to strangle to death when his or her neck is caught in a looped cord. The CPSC says such deaths largely have impacted children from 9 to 17 months of age.

Parents have a right to insist that all products they buy to which their children will be exposed have safety in mind. Clearly this has not been the case with window shades and blinds, whose cords can form a loop or noose and kill. In such cases, victims’ families have a legal right to seek financial compensation from negligent manufacturers for their part in the child’s death, and to demand that such companies fix the problem.

Jim S. Adler & Associates is dedicated to child safety and to helping families who have suffered tragically due to others’ negligence. If a child in your family has been harmed by a defective product, alert a personal injury lawyer with an Adler & Associates office in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio or Channelview, TX, and get the support you need to fight back and correct a tragic situation.

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