The injury toll of shopping carts, escalators

Shopping carts, escalators and lawn mowers injure 35,000 American children every year and should be redesigned, researchers said last week.

In the United States last year, 24,000 children were hurt badly enough to go to the hospital after falling out of shopping carts or toppling over while they rode, a statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics said.

Three-quarters of the injuries were to the head or neck.

Some children were injured when they were trapped in carts, or fell off while riding on the outside or standing up inside the basket, said the report published in the August issue of the academy’s journal, Pediatrics.

Escalators and lawn mowers also cause thousands of injuries to U.S. children each year, reports in Pediatrics said.

Many of the 2,000 annual injuries on escalators occur when a shoe, clothing or a stroller becomes trapped in the space between the moving stairs and the side wall.

Regulations making lawn mowers safer could deter the more than 9,000 injuries sustained each year. Boys suffer nearly 4 out of 5 mower injuries, including burns, fractures and fingers and toes that are lacerated by spinning blades.