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:

• At least 25 children ages 12 and under died in 2001 from toy-related injuries. The majority were children ages 4 and under.
  
  
• Approximately 202,000 children, ages 14 and under, were treated at hospital emergency rooms for toy-related injuries in 2001. Nearly half of the children treated for these injuries were ages 4 and under.
  
  
• Most toy-related injuries do not require hospitalization (98 percent).

Causes:

• Injury from non-powered scooters is the leading cause of toy-related death.
  
  
• Thirty-six percent of toy-related deaths in 2001 were due to choking. About 44 percent of those deaths were attributed to balloons.
  
  
• 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 and when:

• 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.

Who:

• 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.
  
  
• Boys sustain more toy-related injuries (60 percent) than girls.

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