Safety

A 4 year old boy was accidentally lodged between moving parts and left unconscious. The boy was rushed to the hospital and is now reported in stable condition.

The following few details go to the first thoughts of MT and people all over the country I’m sure…

Alcohol didn’t play a role in the accident, police said.

“The operator was interviewed and he was sober,” Freed said, who added that no criminal charges are pending.

We had a near “falling television” incident in our house way back when, so we know the inherent dangers. Also, we would think those plasma and LCD TVs that are mounted on a stand instead of the wall might be top heavy and particularly susceptible to tipping over if pulled by little hands.

A 2-year-old girl was severely injured Sunday afternoon when a television fell off its stand and struck her upper body and head, the Cedar Hill Fire Department said.

The child was alone in a bedroom when the incident occurred about 12:45 p.m. in the 300 block of Taurus Drive, police said. Officers were told she was unconscious and bleeding from the mouth and the nose.

Paramedics transported her by Careflite to Children’s Medical Center Dallas where treatment was begun for a fractured skull and swelling to the brain.

The child’s father and four brothers were home at the time of the accident. It is unknown how the TV fell on the girl.

In September, a 7-year-old Plano girl died after a large television set fell on her.

We’ll admit we’re bystanders when it comes to our children’s activities. For example, on a trip to Chuck E. Cheese you’re more likely to find us in a booth with a book than running around with our kids playing the games and climbing in the tubes. If you’re one of those parents, hey, more power to ya, but a story like this makes us think we’ve made a good decision:

A southern Utah woman is recovering after being scalped while riding on a go-cart.

Dawn Tiatia was riding go-carts at her daughter’s birthday party at a park in Saint George, Utah, a few weeks ago. A big chunk of her hair got caught in the machine’s drive shaft and was ripped off her head.

After spending several days in the hospital, she made a full recovery. The park says there are signs warning about long hair getting caught in the machines.

This is not an isolated incident. Two years ago the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a warning for riders to immediately stop using these types of go-carts until they can be retro-fitted because of this problem.

Using an online registry, the Belleville News-Democrat investigated the over 4,000 day care centers in Illinois and found that 786 centers had at least one registered sex offender living within 500 feet of their front door, despite a state law intended to keep offenders from such close proximity.

The newspaper said the intent of the 2006 law has been thwarted partly because it was worded in such a way that it fails to cover home day care, which accounts for 74 percent of the state’s licensed day-care centers.

The legislation covers home day care that is licensed for nine or more children. But data provided by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services shows that none of the state’s home day-care centers are licensed for more than eight children, according to the News-Democrat. Those with more than eight are required to hire a helper, which would make the small centers more expensive to operate.

The News-Democrat said police would have trouble enforcing the law even if it covered the home day-care centers, because the state agency doesn’t give them updated day care addresses.

Informed of the investigation’s findings, agency spokesman Kendall Marlowe said it was working to address the situation and might develop an online program that could be updated daily for police. “You’ve identified a gap in communication between DCFS and local law enforcement that we will now correct,” he told the News-Democrat.

Sponsors of the 2006 law criticized the agency for making the legislation essentially worthless.

In our day, if we were looking for a “dreamy high”, we would just smoke some weed. Now kids as young as 6 are playing the “choking game”, which is as crazy and dangerous as it sounds — they use various ligatures (rope, scarves, belts) to constrict their airflow until they become lightheaded and euphoric, which is when they are supposed to release the pressure around their neck. Of course, the situation is ripe for things to go horribly wrong:

A federal study of news reports has identified 82 deaths in 31 states from 1995 to October 2007. Fifty-seven children died in 2005 and 2006 alone.

But even if they survive, say experts at the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, the “game” might leave them with permanent brain damage, seizure disorders or other disabilities.

The CDC paper is the first attempt to gather national statistics on the phenomenon. The actual number of fatalities is probably higher, the scientists said, because there is no requirement that such deaths be reported as a separate category.

Intentional suicides, autoerotic activity or other questionable deaths by hanging or strangulation were not included.

There’s a little candy store near Minor Topics HQ, and they have these suckers with bugs, worms, and we swear to god, scorpions. But at least those things are (technically) edible. One mom in Mulberry, Florida found a piece of metal embedded in a lollipop — it was amongst a bag of them she had bought for her son’s Valentine’s Day party.

The candy was X-rayed because a Mulberry woman found metal embedded in a lollipop purchased at a Dollar General Store at 6735 S. Florida Ave., according to the sheriff’s office

Despite the reassuring X-rays, Sheriff Grady Judd says parents who have purchased the Pokemon lollipops should not allow their children to eat them. He also says parents should scrutinize all candy purchased for Valentine’s Day.

Lisa Potter bought a bag of 10 Pokemon Valentine Cards and Pops on Feb. 7. While her son was sorting through them Wednesday night in preparation for taking them to school, he noticed a piece of metal resembling a blade protruding from the corner of the pop. Potter took the candy to the Mulberry Police Department, which called the sheriff’s office.

We personally have a thing against purchasing anything at the Dollar Store that you would put in your mouth, perhaps that wasn’t such a crazy rule after all.

Wow, the press is really reaching to dig up dirt on Miley Cyrus now. Apparently Ms. Cyrus and her father, Billy Ray, are seen riding in the back seat of a Range Rover in her Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert movie. And get this — they weren’t wearing seat belts!! For shame! Forty lashes for the Cyrus family. While of course we are strong advocates for wearing seat belts, but is this really something to freak out about? Does anyone think the screaming tweens in the audience even noticed?

Billy Ray Cyrus says he and his daughter, the “Hannah Montana” actress Miley Cyrus, simply forgot to buckle up for one of their scenes in their new hit movie.

“We got caught up in the moment of filming, and we made a mistake and forgot to buckle our seat belts,” the country music star said Wednesday on People magazine’s Web site. “Seat belt safety is extremely important.”

Don Mays, the director of product safety at Consumers Union, which publishes Yonkers-based Consumer Reports, said Wednesday, “We applaud the Cyrus family for recognizing that wearing seat belts in rear seats is essential.”

Three major brands of polycarbonate baby bottles sold in Canada — Gerber, Avent and Playtex — were tested by a Toronto environmental group and were found to leach the chemical BPA, especially when heated. The Playtex bottles leached the chemical whether heated or not. The true effects of BPA is still under debate, but we think everyone can agree that the less chemicals ingested by our kids, the better.

Tests conducted on three major brands of polycarbonate baby bottles sold in Canada found products from all the manufacturers leached detectable amounts of bisphenol A, a synthetic chemical that mimics the hormone estrogen and is a major component in many types of plastic.

The testing was conducted by Environmental Defence, a Toronto environmental group that issued its findings Thursday and is the first publicly available information on the seepage of BPA from polycarbonate baby bottles sold in the country.

The highest levels were found after the bottles were heated, which the group said was done to simulate the effects on the plastic of parents’ subjecting the containers to repeated high-temperature dish washing.

At least one child, age 11, was killed along with her parents in Arkansas from trauma as a tornado hit their home. So far, death totals are at least 44.

ATKINS, Arkansas — Authorities went door-to-door early Wednesday searching for more victims of deadly tornadoes that ripped the roof off a shopping mall, pummeled mobile homes and blew apart warehouses as they tore across four states. At least 44 people were reported dead throughout the South.

The victims included 24 people in Tennessee, 13 in Arkansas, and seven in Kentucky, emergency officials said. Among those killed were Arkansas parents who died with their 11-year-old in Atkins, about 60 miles northwest of Little Rock.

A 14 year old who attempted to open and shut a slightly ajar car door fell onto the street where several cars ran over her.

Her mother claims she tried to prevent cars from running her over but nobody would stop. I might be skeptical of this, if I hadn’t personally witnessed on several occasions, drivers running over animals when they were clear, visible and within stopping distance. Perhaps these people thought it was an animal, in which case, they should be charged with vehicular homicide. Now, I don’t know all the facts of course and it could very well be that they couldn’t stop in time or they didn’t expect a person to be laying on a busy highway. From this short story though, it appears that the drivers just drove off. Horrible.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Feb. 3 (UPI) — A 14-year-old girl died after falling from a moving van onto a busy Michigan highway where she was struck by several vehicles, it was reported Sunday.

Merida Mateo-Pablo of Grand Rapids, Mich., tried to open and shut her family’s minivan door Saturday night. The momentum of the sliding door pulled her out of the van and on to U.S. 131, WOOD-TV, Grand Rapids, Mich., reported.

Police said the family’s car was traveling 70 mph when she fell out of the van. She was not wearing a seatbelt.

What kind of hillbilly drinks and drives a FLOAT?

MARKSVILLE, La. — A driver towing a float in a Carnival parade ran over his 16-year-old brother, killing him, state police said.

Clay Michael Sayer was standing between Kain N. Sayer’s pickup truck and the float behind it, talking to riders on the float during a brief stop around 5 p.m. Saturday, Trooper Scott Moreau said. The teen was pinned by the float when the truck started moving again, Moreau said.

Kain Sayer, 21, was booked with vehicular homicide, drunken driving and careless driving, state police said.

A 5 year old Kindergartener choked on what family is now suspecting was a thumb tack, on his school bus en route to his home. While such a freak, terrible and tragic accident, I wonder if bus drivers shouldn’t be required to know CPR and the Heimlich maneuver.

The 5-year-old boy who died on a Marlborough school bus Wednesday was a kindergarten student named Darnell Cobb, officials said earlier today.

In a press conference at Central Fire Station - a few hundred yards away from where the bus pulled over yesterday - Mayor Nancy Stevens said Cobb was unconscious when paramedics arrived at the bus. Efforts by emergency responders and Marlborough Hosptial staff to revive the boy were unsuccessful, she said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has come up with a new 5-star ratings system to help parents make a more informed choice as to which car seat is easiest for parents to properly install. In other words, a 1-star car seat will require a degree from MIT, while the 5-star is perfect for those with the hand coordination of a lobster, like us. Hopefully this will have some influence on car seat manufacturers to make them all easy to put in to stay competitive, as we don’t see too many parents having a hard time answering the question, “Hmmm, should I get the 2-star car seat that will take an hour to get in and out of the minivan, or the 5-star one that take 30 seconds?”

Regulators hope to address confusion among parents over the wide variety of seats and installation methods.

Using a five-star rating system, the new approach will judge safety seats by the ease with which the seats can be used by parents.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says seven in 10 child safety seats are either the wrong size of misused. That reduces the seats’ ability to protect kids in a crash.

You can view the new guidelines at the NHTSA website.

If it’s not bad enough to have your car stolen, but to have your baby shot by the thieves is unfathomable.

I don’t understand it. Take the car, take all of ones belongings — the baby wasn’t going to identify these hoodlums. Why hurt and murder an innocent little baby?

A 13-month-old boy was shot and killed and his mother was wounded during an apparent carjacking Monday night in Gary, officials said.

The shooting was reported around 7:35 p.m. in the 500 block of West 21st Avenue, but it was unclear whether that was where the original carjacking took place, officials with the Lake County coroner’s office said early Tuesday morning.

Josiah T. Shaw, who lived in the 5800 block of Forest Court in Gary, was taken from the red sport-utility vehicle to Gary Methodist Hospital where he died of gunshot wounds to the chin and left pelvic area, according to the coroner’s office.

We remember one time when our oldest son was in preschool, we received a note home from the teacher saying, “Please don’t send money to school with the children, it can get lost and the coins pose a choking hazard for the younger kids.” Turns out he had picked up change lying around the house and put it in his pocket, and was showing it off to his friends. So we get how a kid can sneak things out of the house without the parent knowing. But a gun and knife? We’re not anti-gun nuts by any means, but if you have to have that stuff in your house, for the love of pete, lock it up!

Sequoyah County Sheriff Johnny Philpot says no one was injured and it appears the [first grade] boy was showing his father’s gun to friends at Central Elementary School Wednesday.

Philpot says another student told a teacher about the weapons and school officials say authorities were called immediately.

Philpot says the boy’s parents kept the gun in a nightstand in their bedroom for protection.