Together, We’re Protecting Children From Furniture Tip-over Tragedies

When you hear our stories – the parent of a child killed by his bedroom furniture and a corporate leader focusing on safety for a home furnishings retailer– you’d think we’d be at odds with each other.

Instead, we turned pain into purpose – and purpose into partnership – working together with a broad range of stakeholders that brought together parents and safety advocates, industry, with bipartisan congressional support to enact historic legislation against an all-too-common household hazard.

Now we – and America’s families, businesses, and policymakers – need to help the new law achieve its objectives and set a workable safety standard that is implemented as soon as possible. And we must also spread the word that there are already solutions for preventing tip-overs, such as anchoring to the wall – and these commonsense precautions can save lives and avert injuries.

First, our stories. And then, our call to action.

Brett’s family story: My wife, Jenny and I will never forget November 1, 2007. Our two-and-a-half-year-old son, Charlie, was killed when he tried to climb a 30-inch dresser in our home. Despite having an audio monitor in the room, we did not hear the dresser fall, trapping him beneath.

We reached out to others who had suffered similar tragedies, including Kim Amato, whose 3-year-old daughter Meghan died in 2004 when her dresser toppled while the rest of her family was asleep. Together with other grieving moms and dads, we founded Parents Against Tip-overs to advocate for safer furniture designs, as well as stronger and mandatory furniture making and testing standards.

We learned that we weren’t alone: Almost every 46 minutes, tip-overs send victims of all ages to our nation’s emergency rooms. 

And just as we weren’t alone, we knew that bereaved parents couldn’t go it alone. The industry had to be involved in the solution, and, when we eventually met with IKEA (which didn’t make my son’s dresser) we looked for ways we could work together to help prevent future tragedies.

Now, the IKEA story: Rooted in Sweden, where working together is a way of life, we’ve collaborated with parents, safety advocates, policymakers and other manufacturers and retailers to frame and follow the existing voluntary industry standards for chests-of-drawers and other furniture.

For decades, IKEA has provided wall attachment kits with our chests-of-drawers and included wall attachment in our assembly instructions. It’s still the best way to prevent tip-over accidents. IKEA also issued several recalls, redesigned products, and launched a consumer education campaign. But true progress can’t be about one company, it requires collective action.

For IKEA – and our partners – this has been a painful journey without easy answers. We were devastated to learn that children had lost their lives when an IKEA chest of drawers toppled over. Our hearts go out to these families, and to all families who have experienced the tragedy of a tip-over accident. 

The U.S. needs a mandatory clothing storage unit stability rule to provide peace of mind for consumers and reliable guidance for the industry. After difficult discussions and hard work by a cross-section of stakeholders, with bipartisan Congressional support passed the STURDY (Stop Tip-overs of Unstable, Risky Dressers on Youth) Act as part of the Omnibus spending bill passed on December 23, 2022.

It demonstrated that members of the U.S. House and Senate can come together, across party lines, to address a challenge that transcends partisanship and ideology. We appreciate every Senator and Representative who supported the law. And we’re especially grateful to Senators Bob Casey (D-PA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Tom Cotton (R-AR), and Roy Blunt (R-MO), as well as Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).

The law is a great step forward, requiring the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to set mandatory safety standards for all dressers and similar products made or sold in the U.S. As a parent activist and an industry corporate leader, we are pleased that it requires furniture companies to simulate “real-world use” in testing products.

And now, we invite everyone to take the next steps. The CPSC needs to work quickly to adopt the standard required by law – one that is supported by every stakeholder – from safety advocates to lawmakers to manufacturers to moms and dads. Time is of the essence.

Manufacturers and retailers need to do their part, not only upholding safety standards in their own products but also working with concerned parents and consumer advocates to spread the safety message. Consumers need to make sure this type of furniture is attached to the walls.

Taking these sensible steps together will make a difference. It will save lives. It will avert preventable tragedies. And it will fulfill the promises we made to all the families whose tragedies motivate our mission.

Brett Horn is a founder of Parents Against Tip-Overs. Tracey Kelly is the program lead for IKEA US Safer Life at Home development.