A Systematic Accident Scenario Analysis of Child Nursery Equipment: Stroller Case Study

Despite the improvements in child safety products with better government regulations, children continue to be victims of defective or improperly used child nursery equipment. According to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), an estimated 80,000 children under age five are treated every year in U.S. hospital emergency rooms for injuries related to child nursery equipment. Among child nursery equipment, stroller-related accidents caused the most serious injuries to children along with baby walkers and child safety seats. As such, an in-depth accident investigation was needed to find ways to reduce the number of injuries and provide more stringent safety specifications in the design of the stroller. The objective of this study is to identify the accident mechanisms and patterns of stroller-related injuries for designing safer products. In this study, we proposed a Systematic Accident Scenario Analysis (SASA) method, which provides a formal and systematic scheme to devise accident scenarios while maintaining objectivity.