Unsafe at Any Speed…

There’s a new danger on the horizon tonight. One being met every day by families all across America and they don’t even know it. The safety of our children is at stake from this silent threat.
Illness? No.
Violence? Wrong.
Terrorism? Nope.
Shopping carts.
That’s right, shopping carts. As if your own common sense weren’t enough, apparently the Government now needs to tell you that shopping carts are unsafe.
Manchester (NH) Union Leader | Docs: Beware shopping carts
The American Academy of Pediatrics actually had to come out with a warning about shopping carts?!?! C’mon, people. What is it about those things that looks even remotely safe? Oh, but here are some stats…

Of the 24,200 children treated last year in U.S. emergency rooms for shopping-cart-related injuries, 74 percent suffered head and neck injuries, 85 percent were under 5, and 4 percent were injured seriously enough to be admitted to the hospital, according to the academy.
Falls accounted for 58 percent of children’s shopping-cart-related injuries — generally, children ages 3 to 5 fell from carts’ main baskets, where they are unrestrained and their high center of gravity makes toppling over especially dangerous. The carts themselves tipped over in an additional 26 percent of cases, typically injuring children under 2 and often when an older sibling was climbing on or standing in the cart.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve probably used a shopping cart hundreds of times. I have never been able to get one of those things to flip over in normal use…and I’ve tried. Also, 58% of children who fell did so from the cart’s main basket. The one where the food is.
The one where they’re not supposed to be. Right, but it’s the cart’s fault. Silly me.
It sounds more like the American Academy of Pediatrics should put out a warning with regard to stupidity and parents who can’t keep an eye on their kids.
William Smith
ConservativeBlogger.com