When 16-month-old Roberto Arias was playing with his older sister one day, he became tangled in the cord of the window blinds in his family’s home. His mother, Lesley, soon saw that the cord was wrapped around her young son’s neck and was suffocating him. She immediately called 911 and tried to revive him, but the little boy had already died.
Similarly, Nicci Walla was shooting a video of her children playing when she noticed her son Gavin standing by the window. Nicci soon realized that her young son was actually being strangled by the blind cord after becoming tangled up in it. Thankfully, Gavin survived after his father performed CPR.
In 2010, 3-year-old Daniel Sutton was playing in his bedroom when he wrapped the cord from his window blinds around his neck. When the boy’s mother came into the room, she found that her little boy had been strangled to death.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, hundreds of children have died in similar blind cord accidents since 1996. Finally, after her 1-year-old daughter was killed by window blind cords, Linda Kaiser created a group called Parents for Window Blind Safety to advocate for blinds without cords and to spread awareness about the danger of blind cords.
Apparently, stores rarely tell customers about the danger of blind cords. In addition, The Window Covering Manufacturers Association has rejected a proposed standard that would make blind cords very short or nonexistent. It’s likely that the rejection is related to the cost of the different types of blinds. Cordless blinds are more expensive than those with cords. Chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission Elliot Kaye says the industry has been trying to mislead people about the danger:
To try to convince people it’s parents to blame. Parents are not to blame for this hidden hazard.
Now, major retailers Lowes, Home Depot and Walmart have all committed to eliminating corded blinds from their stores by 2018.
Source: AOL