Education can save the next Vaida

Vaida Randall was a sparkling 3-year-old with blonde hair and big blue eyes who loved helping her grandfather fix items around the house. She was obsessed with a pair of red cowboy boots and passionate about her dogs.

Vaida died last month in an unforeseen accident.

Kali Randall recently shared the painful story of losing her young daughter with the Times Recorder: The two were napping. Vaida woke up before Kali and went into the living room where she toppled a cabinet and TV onto herself. What Vaida may have been reaching for or doing is unknown.

Kali shared in her story in hopes of helping other parents, who, like herself, may not be aware of devices used to anchor furniture to walls to prevent such accidents.

Today these devices, such as straps and brackets, are sold online and in many hardware and electronic stores. But they weren’t on any childproofing checklist in years past, and still aren’t on the Ohio Department of Health’s checklist.

And a national education campaign to educate parents was only launched less than a year ago.

The goal of US Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Anchor It! campaign is to reduce the number of deaths and injuries to children who tip furniture and TVs onto themselves. And these tip-over incidents are far more common than one might expect, according to the commission:

•Every 24 minutes tipped furniture or a fallen TV sends an injured child to the emergency room.

•On average, unsecured TVs and large pieces of furniture kill a child every two weeks.

•The impact of a falling TV is like being caught between two NFL lineman colliding at full speed – 10 times.

•Two-thirds of the 38,000 people injured annually are children younger than 5.

The fact that Kali did not know about the anti-tipping devices has not eased her pain, nor has it erased the what ifs from her mind.

We implore anyone with a child in their household to take the time to visit http://www.anchorit.gov/ and educate themselves and those around them.

You have the power to save another Vaida.