On July 16th, Wednesday morning, a five year old boy sustained a deadly head injury when the swing set he was swinging on collapsed. The accident occurred in the backyard of a home on Douglas Road in Joelton, TN. The investigation revealed that the wooden support posts of the swing were not secured to the ground. The accident occurred around 9:15 in the morning. CPR was initiated at the scene until EMS arrived. The child was pronounced dead at Skyline Medical Center in Nashville, TN.
With the exception of infants, accidents are the number one cause of modern mortality in children. For children ages one to nine years of age, the injury death rate is approximately 10.4 per 100,000 children. The type of death and injury changes with the development level of the child. The nature of a non-intentional injury and death are influenced by multiple factors, such as the developmental stage of the child, the child’s behavior, gender, race, socioeconomic status, parental (or other) supervision, and the environment. In general, male children are more likely to be injured than female children. Children of lower socio-economic status are more likely to be injured than children from upper socio-economic status.
One key principal to reduce death and injury in children is to restructure the environment to improve safety. Examples of restructuring environment include using safety belts in the car, wearing helmets while riding bicycles, putting fences around pools, childproofing the home, maintenance of playground equipment and adjusting water temperature of the water heater to below 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Most injuries for children in this age group occur at home.
