Some good news for parents as they gear up for holiday shopping: fewer kids died in toy-related incidents last year, and while there were more toy-related ER visits, in 96% of cases victims were treated and released, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Moreover, the number of toy recalls is on the decline, with 44 in fiscal 2010, down from 50 in 2009 and 172 in 2008, the CPSC says.
Now obviously, any toy-related death is too many. But the numbers are coming down — 12 deaths of kids under 15 in 2009, following 24 deaths each in 2007 and 2008. (These reported fatalities are associated with toys, but not necessarily caused by them.)
Riding toys including tricycles were associated with more than half the fatal accidents, often by drowning when the toy goes into a pool or ditch.
Scooters were associated with 49,500, or 27%, of ER-treated, toy-related injuries last year. That’s up from 42,900 scooter-related injuries in 2008.
In total, there were 185,900 ER-treated injuries associated with toys in the under-15 age group, a number that has been steadily growing since 2005.
Image: iStockphoto
