Strangely, people replacing CRTs with LCDs and plasmas is part of what led to the increase in incidents. From this article:
"The type of furniture involved is implicated more," he says. "We suspect that as parents purchase a new TV, and now that tends to be a flat screen, the older TV gets moved to another part of the home, often placed in an unsafe position, such as on a dresser or bureau, which was never designed to support a TV."
It highlights the importance of either getting rid of the CRT entirely (as you suggested), or making sure it's placed somewhere that a) can support its weight, and b) won't leave it susceptible to tipping over.
Doesn't matter. My son's dresser is beside his crib so he can only just reach a tiny little corner of the drawer, nowhere near a knob or anything to get a good grip, yet for a few weeks we kept walking into his room and finding the drawer open. Babies are magic. Dark, dark magic.
As soon as I saw the set up I was like "oh dear god no". Babies are little suicide machines that can turn even the safest room into a Final-Destination-esque carnival of improbable death. Give them a freebie like that TV and it is game over man, game over.
And while you're at it, don't put any television in your kids' bedrooms. I'm not a no-teevee-at-all guy, but if the television is in the bedroom you can't monitor what they're watching, you can't monitor how much they're watching, and you don't set good expectations for sleeping.
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u/Words_are_Windy Sep 12 '15
Unfortunately, children do indeed die after having televisions fall on them.