Safety and Injury Prevention

Toy Safety - Injury Statistics and Incidence Rates

The following statistics are the latest available from the National SAFE KIDS Campaign and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC):

Injury and death rates:

• Approximately 155,400 children, ages 14 and under, were treated at hospital emergency rooms for toy-related injuries in 2003. Nearly half of the children treated for these injuries were ages four and under.
  
  
• Most toy-related injuries do not require hospitalization (97 percent), however, in 2003, 11 children died due to toy-related injuries.

Causes:

• Injury from non-powered scooters is the leading cause of toy-related death.
  
  
• Sixty-four percent of toy-related deaths in 2003 were due to choking. About 71 percent of those deaths were attributed to toy balls.
  
  
• Other causes of toy-related deaths include drowning, suffocation, and riding toy accidents (such as when a child is hit by a motor vehicle while riding a toy, or when the child rides a toy into a body of water).

Where, when and who:

• Riding toys are responsible for the majority of toy injuries among children ages 14 and under.
  
  
• Most riding toy-related injuries occur when a child falls from a toy.
  
  
• Almost half of all toy-related injuries (47 percent) occur to the head and face area.
  
  
• Children under age 3 are at greater risk for choking on toys than older children, due to their tendency to put everything in their mouths. In addition, the upper airways of children under age 3 are smaller than those of older children.