Whether you use glass coffee tables for looks or function, you probably don’t think of these tables as dangerous.
But Consumer Product Safety Commission records show nearly 700 incidents caused by glass furniture from 2004 through March 6, 2009.
David Juskow was severely injured when he sat down on his glass coffee table. The table suddenly shattered beneath him.
“I never would have thought that I could have almost died by sitting on a glass coffee table,” Juskow said.
It happened when he was watching television. Sitting down on the table, he said the glass suddenly shattered beneath him.
“I get up and there's a huge piece of glass. I pull it out which I guess I shouldn't have done and I'm bleeding to death,” Juskow said. “The ambulance brings me to the hospital, I'm going into cardiac arrest.”
Juskow survived, but some are not so lucky.
CPSC records show six deaths caused by glass furniture. An 11-year-old Rhode Island girl was among the most recent of victims. She died this past December after she suffered a severe puncture wound to her leg when she jumped on and fell into a glass coffee table in family’s apartment.
Emergency room doctors report kids jumping on furniture and falling into glass table tops account for many of the most serious of injuries which can turn critical quickly because of severe blood loss.
Don Mays is the Director of Product Safety for Consumer Reports. He said the number of injuries specifically caused by glass coffee tables should not be ignored.
“Injuries associated with glass coffee tables amount to more than 20,000 hospital treated injuries per year,” Mays said.
Consumer Reports estimates those numbers based on its own analysis of nationwide emergency room injuries associated with glass furniture.
