Since there have been a series of accidents in which children fall from the balcony of an apartment and die, a group of experts conducted a demonstration experiment to consider effective measures.
The experiment was conducted on the 4th at a nursery school in Nagaokakyo City, Kyoto Prefecture, by a group of experts made up of researchers and doctors.
We attached equipment to a device that imitated a fence on the balcony, changed the height from 120 cm to 140 cm, and investigated whether more than 50 children aged 3 to 6 could get over the fence by age.
As a result, some children climbed in about 5 seconds by sticking their bare feet to the fence even at a height of 140 cm, which is higher than their own height.
There is a standard that the height of the fence on the balcony of an apartment should be 110 cm or more to prevent it from falling, but there are many cases where children get over it, and last month a 4-year-old girl was in a high-rise apartment in Kita-ku, Osaka. There is also an accident that seems to have fallen from the balcony and died.
The group will continue to conduct experiments, and will consider and announce the shape of the fence and effective equipment to prevent falls.
Koji Kitamura, a non-profit organization that works to prevent children's accidents as a member of the group, said, "It is important to create an environment where children cannot get over the fence even if they try to climb. I want to share it. "
What is the actual situation of a child's fall accident?
According to the national vital survey, the number of accidents in which a child under the age of 14 fell from a building such as the balcony of an apartment and died last year was 7, a decrease of 5 from the previous year, but it occurs every year. There have been 124 cases in the last 10 years.
Of these, the Consumer Affairs Agency analyzed in detail 37 fatal accidents in the five years up to 2018, and found that by age group, 3 years old was the most common, and 1 to 4 years old accounted for more than 60% of the total. That is.
In addition, at the location of the accident,
▽ falls from the balcony were about 40% of the total, 15 cases,
▽ falls from the windows were 7 cases, and
▽ falls from the roof were 2 cases.
In the accident cases collected from medical institutions,
▽ a
case where a
5-year-old child was holding on to the railing of the balcony to see off his family and fell forward, and
▽ a balcony on the second floor with a 90 cm high fence. There was a case where a 4-year-old child was thought to have fallen.
Children's fall accidents have been occurring one after another since the beginning of the
year
. A 4-year-old girl who seems to have fallen from a veranda has died in a high-rise condominium in Kita-ku, Sapporo.