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Every Year Thousands of Children
Fall From Buldings

And an Inexpensive Device Can Help Prevent This

In the U.S. alone, 4,000 to 5,000 children are severely injured or killed after falling out of windows.
Growing up, I remember lying across the window sill of my bedroom window, leaning against the screen watching my friends play in the street below.
The way kids think and behave hasn't changed. The way windows are made has.

Modern windows are built to a price. Screens that used to be constructed of wood, steel and screwed in place are now made of thin extruded or roll formed aluminum strips covered in light fabric mesh. When kids press up against them these materials act more like flaps than structural barriers.


The Issue

In the U.S. alone, 4,000 to 5,000 children are severely injured or killed by falls from windows.

Growing up, I remember lying across the window sill of my bedroom window, leaning against the window screen watching my friends play in the street below.
The way kids think and behave hasn't changed. The way windows are made has.

Modern windows are built to a price. Screens that used to be constructed of wood, steel and screwed in place are now made of thin extruded or roll formed aluminum strips covered in light fabric mesh. These materials act more like flaps than structural barriers when kids press up against them. A large percentage of the U.S. population does not use air conditioning for their home and renters are even more likely to not have air conditioning. In the sumertime, people open their windows for ventilation and cooling and this is when it becomes dangerous for children. Kids are inquisitive and preventing them from crawling onto open window sills has proven to be impossible. Methods and techniques have been suggested but they are expensive, impractical or impossible for homeowners and renters to put in place and use effectively.

Here are the window and door industry's suggested safety guidelines to stop the growing numbers of falls:

BARS
Bars prevent falls but they can kill as easily as save lives.
Even bars that release for egress can slow or stop children from escaping. Unlatching mechanisms are often non-intuitive and unfamiliar to a panicked children. Even adults will become confused when it matters.
Limiting Locks
Locks that prevent windows from opening wider than four inches are available.
People who need to open their windows because air conditioning isn't available are at a loss. Thinking that people who need to keep their families cool on summer days won't open their windows as wide as possible is foolish.




Furniture
It has been officially suggested not to place furniture in front of windows. It's obvious those making that rule have never spent time in a small high rise apartment with little usable wall space. Radiators are often placed in front of windows. I used the radiator in front of my bedroom window for convenient access to the sill.





Plant Shrubs Below Windows
At first, I thought this suggestion was a joke. How many apartment dwellers have the ability to plant soft bushes in the driveways and streets beneath their windows?






The windows in this Jason Dent photo rely on a tilt feature. They look like common hung windows seen throughout America but these European windows don't slide up and down, are high priced and the amount of tilt is fixed.
No matter the price, every sliding hung window sold in America today has tilt in sashes but there's no way to hold them at an angle to reduce childrens' ability to crawl onto the window's sill and falling through the screen onto the street below.


The Patents