How to Keep Furniture from Tipping onto Children

RON HAZELTON:
Every year, some 2,000 children end up in hospital emergency rooms with injuries sustained from tipping chests of drawers like this, and very sadly, five children die from those kinds of injuries.

Now how does that happen? Well, a chest of drawers is fairly stable with all of the drawers closed. But as you begin to open these, the center of gravity begins to shift to the front. Now with these three open, you can see it's getting quite top heavy.

If I open this drawer, and then this one, this becomes and dangerous, if not lethal [CHEST FALLS] falling object. An anti-tip kit can solve the problem and it's very easy to install. Begin by the moving the furniture away from the wall. Then use an electronic stud sensor to find the wall stud nearest the center. Mark the edges, then draw fake pencil lines to outline the stud location, using a short level as a guide.

Now push the furniture back into position, lay a pencil on top and make a horizontal mark on the wall. Select one of the mounting brackets, place it on top of the stud, a couple of inches from the top, and mark the mounting-hole locations.

Next, drill pilot holes [DRILLING SOUNDS], then drive in the mounting screws. Using a hole-saw or drill, bore through the back of the furniture near the top.  On the underside of the top, place the second bracket in position and mark the hole locations,  Drill pilot holes, then drive in the screws.  Now make sure the screws are short enough not to penetrate the top.  Attach one end of the safety lanyard by passing a retaining pin through the end.  Secure the pin with a retaining clip. Next push the other end of the lanyard through the hole in the back and attach it to the wall bracket with a retaining pin and clip.  Okay, now let's conduct that same test. I'll open the bottom drawer, the middle drawers and here, we're just about to reach the tipping point.

Now my anti-tip kit like the one we just installed right here, is a great backup device, but there are some preventative measures you can take with your children too. Talk to them about how to use a chest of drawers and explain never to open more than one at a time.

And caution them against climbing up the front or using the drawers as ladders. Oh, and one final thing -- try to avoid putting things on the top of a chest that they might find attractive and want to climb up and get.