Products to keep children from having accidents increasing

By Masato Inoue

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josebove at 07:05 AM JST - 5th November

I agree with you all that much of this is good parenting and common sense. Our son has been playing with "real" scissors since he was 3, but we were careful to teach him how to hold them, carry them, pass them to another person, and the importance of putting them away when he was finished. On the few occasions when he was careless, he simply lost his scissor privileges for the day. He hasn't had any accidents and not only his motor skills and hand eye coordination but also his sense of responsibility have developed.

As a parent, what I'm worried about are unknown/secret dangers, like lead in paint or plastic that can cause cancer. That's the point where I want to depend on scientists, researchers, and government regulations.

And yeah, not putting your child in a proper car seat is a crime, on several levels.
thepro at 12:50 PM JST - 5th November

In the future commercial products will outweigh common sense. 'Hey, how come I bleed when I get cut? Somebody make a non-bleeding skin protector!'
Disillusioned at 01:31 PM JST - 5th November

Just yesterday, I saw a two year old kid sitting on daddy's lap as he was driving along in his Nissan Cima and having a fag, neither of which were wearing seat belts. I'm sure the need for child safe devices is there, but there is a stronger need to penalize parents for their complete irresponsibility towards their kids. The poor little 5y/o girl who was killed in Togane last month, whose killer is still at large was a result of poor parental judgment. I'm sure at least 50% of the above mentioned accidents were not caused by the kids, but by their stupid parents. And, how many kids under 13y/o do you actually see wearing bicycle helmets? I thought it was the law, but I guess it's only a guideline. Japanese parents in general are disgustingly irresponsible!
outofmydepth at 06:59 PM JST - 5th November

yeah, wearing a helmet just a suggestion here - sort of like stop signs and red lights.
doedel at 11:37 PM JST - 5th November

My youngest one was smarter than trying to cut his finger(s), he fixed himself an interesting haircut.
tzvete at 05:17 PM JST - 6th November

The more complicated the toys ,the more chances to be dangerous."A long,long ago" kids used to play with balls,dolls,made of ald clothes,etc.There were not as many incidents as nowadays.
cagedislander at 07:24 PM JST - 6th November

Oooh ooh oooh! I know!

Portable doors to block them from entering America until 20 Jan 2013.
bjones at 09:12 PM JST - 6th November

Here are some statistics on Bicycling Safety:

http://www.massbike.org/resources/stats.htm#sidewalk

which says:

Risk of Sidewalk and Wrong-way Riding Bicyclists who habitually ride on the sidewalk and across crosswalks are more at risk than those who ride on adjacent roadways. A 1994 study in California compared the accident rate per mile of sidewalk riding compared to the accident rate for road riding (on the same roads) and found that the rate for sidewalk accidents was 1.8 times greater (Wachtel and Lewiston 1994).

The same California study found that the relative risk of riding the wrong way (against traffic) was 3.6 times as high for those riding with traffic. In Hunter et al. 1996, about 1/3 of all bicyclists hit by cars were riding against traffic. The Boston study found that about ¼ of all cyclists hit were riding against traffic.

Riding on the sidewalk opposite the flow of traffic is more than 4 times as dangerous as riding on the road with the flow of traffic. The California study found that this risk was 4.3 times greater than riding on the road with the direction of traffic.

Contrary to intuition, cyclists riding on bicycle paths (now called "shared use paths") have a higher crash rate than cyclists riding on roads, although not as high a crash rate as cyclists riding on sidewalks (Aultman-Hall and Kaltenecker 1998). The risk of injuries on paths compared to roads has been calculated as 40%, 80%, and 260% higher (Moritz 1998, Aultman-Hall and Kaltenecker 1998, Kaplan 1976). Some of the increased risk may be explained by the greater likelihood of inexperienced cyclists to use paths or sidewalks (Aultman-Hall and Adams 1998). However, the studies of bicycle club members, who are much more experienced than average cyclists, reveal a higher crash rate on paths even for these riders.

Preventing Head Injury Helmets can only protect against head (including brain) and facial injuries—but these are the injuries most likely to be permanently disabling or fatal. In a 1996 study, 35% of injured bicyclists admitted to emergency rooms had facial injuries and 22% had head injuries (see Table 3). Extremities were the most common location of injuries. The most common types of injuries were abrasions, lacerations, and contusions. One-fourth of the patients with bicycle-related injuries suffered fractures. ...

I'm curious....to increase safety - can anyone add some information to this web site from the country of Japan?:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclinghandsignals
frontandcentre at 09:35 PM JST - 6th November

The craziest thing here is seeing kids wearing helmets when riding in the child seats on a bike (of course a good thing) while mother isn't. What do the kids think as a result - adults don't need to wear helmets? That adult craniums are somehow less susceptible in an accident? I actually hate seeing kids being ridden around like that, I always think of the consequences of an accident, however I guess that they are probably safer on a bike than walking along the pavement and being run over by a high-speed moron wearing an i-pod, dark glasses and speaking on his keitai. People doing that should be instantly punished
frontandcentre at 09:40 PM JST - 6th November

Riding on the sidewalk opposite the flow of traffic is more than 4 times as dangerous as riding on the road with the flow of traffic.

....ha ha...especially when I'm walking the other way and the approaching cyclist is a skinny dude type idiot deliberately endangering himself and others by wearing an i-pod. If moving erratically across their path doesn't distract them, mouthing swear words and pointing aggressively usually does. Absolute pond life, the lot of them
Sammi33 at 09:13 AM JST - 7th November

How about another one---not riding a flimsy bike with one nursery school age child in the back, and a baby in front? Oh, and when I was at a wedding for a dekikon couple, they had a chair at our table for the baby. The baby is still a little over 6 months old, and they had what looked like a small barstool for him. The chair had a back, it was made of laquered wood like the rest of the chairs, no cushion, very slippery, no belt, no mini-table, nothing like a normal baby chair one would find at any restaurant in America. I immediately told the family that putting a baby in the chair wasn't a good idea, and they kind of shrugged and said "yea, he probably wouldn't be able to stay still anyway." Other people have said it, but this is an area where Japan is way behind.
JeromeInJapan at 01:24 AM JST - 8th November

I head the bubble is rather effective.
illsayit at 02:18 PM JST - 12th November

the world of america, yes we can, tell you how to look after your kids, we can also tell you how bad quality your products are-so use ours-we can show you how to make money from insurance claims, stepping into peoples lives and insisting on sameness....all in the word of safety.

I much prefer parents dealing with their kids. Kids being respected that they arent total imbiciles, or ignored, so that accidents would occur.
illsayit at 02:37 PM JST - 12th November

also....American roads. australian roads are not Japanese roads. Id say shove your survey.....And what has seatbelts got to do with things. What about not letting kids drive?
stipend at 10:36 PM JST - 12th November

Kids driving? I like that!

And how about not letting daddy on a bicycle with the 3yr old either. He goes the wrong way across a bridge with an already comprised curb lane, no shoulder, while checking email! -for the love of god! Our bicycles meet center span and stop. Looking forward I can't move but he manages to get around in a lull of traffic. I look back to see he's got the 3yr old in the rear seat! And this bridge has nice wide sidewalks on both sides and they are very well protected.

So how about-- we just put rubber baby buggy bumpers around the whole friggn' place? ...think I got a new safety product! ;-)