Toddler Hurt By Falling TV In Aurora
AURORA, Ill. (CBS) -- In a headline that has become all too common lately, a 2-year-old girl was hurt when a TV fell on her in her home in Aurora over the weekend.
Aurora police said a boxlike TV fell from a bookshelf onto the girl in the 100 block of South Union Street.
The girl's 18-year-old uncle was babysitting the girl and three other children: an 18-month-old boy, a 17-month-old girl and a 6-year-old boy, according to Aurora police spokesman Dan Ferrelli.
The uncle was watching the 17-month-old girl in the living room while the other children were in another room. He heard a loud thump and when he went to check it out, found a 20-inch TV set had fallen on the 2-year-old girl.
The TV had been on top of a cabinet, but was not bolted to the wall.
Emergency responders were called to the scene around 2:50 p.m. Paramedics took the girl to Provena Mercy Medical Center in Aurora and later airlifted to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. Tests determined she had not suffered any fractures and her injuries were not life-threatening.
Police said no foul play is suspected and the uncle will not be charged.
In the past six months, accidents involving TVs have left at least four small children dead, and one more injured, in the Chicago area.
On Feb. 8, a 2-year-old girl was rushed to Comer Children's Hospital after a 29-inch TV and a dresser fell on her as she tried to climb the dresser at her home in the 1300 block of West 76th Street. The girl has survived her injuries.
Just the day before, a 1-year-old boy was killed by falling TV at his home in the Roseland neighborhood. Around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, an older box-type TV fell on little Sean Brown at his home in the 11300 block of South Edbrooke Avenue.
Sean was later pronounced dead.
In October and November, respectively, similar accidents killed Shaniya Singleton, 3, of the Englewood neighborhood, and Karl Clermont, 6, of Arlington Heights.
On the CBS 2 Morning News earlier this month, Arvey Levinsohn of A&H Childproofers said TVs and dressers can be dangerous, no matter how sturdy they may seem.
"Even the heaviest of dressers that I've seen my clients say, 'Oh, that's too heavy to move,' you open the drawers and they almost tip over by themselves without the child," Levinsohn said.
Levinsohn says there are ways to anchor old, front-heavy monitors and furniture with snaps and studs.
"The center of gravity has changed on a dresser when a child pulls drawers out, and they try to pull the drawers out so they can get an item that mom and dad took and put up so the child doesn't play with it, and then they leave the child alone for 5 seconds, and he opens the drawers and the center of gravity is changed," he said.
