Doctors say about 11,000 people a year suffer unintentional injuries in San Diego County. Ranging from falls, vehicle accidents, drowning to something falling on top of you. This week was the premiere of a Home Safety video inspired by a San Diego family's tragedy.
Twenty-month old Keegan Wallace is doing what most toddlers do at his age. Getting into stuff. He's at a movie theatre in Mission Valley where scores of people have come to watch a home safety video. It features the Wallace family who tragically lost their 3 year old daughter Kendall in 2005.
"It was a short three door dresser and she had opened the drawers to use it as a ladder to climb up and in the process it came down on top of her," said Eric and Niki Wallace. The couple says it was a preventable accident. "We had what we thought to be all the child safety in place in the home and it was minor, what we thought to be minor, that got overlooked and ended up being the one thing that we missed," said Eric Wallace.
Dr. Raul Coimbra with UC San Diego health says the missing link to dealing with unintentional injuries is proper prevention. He says drowning is a high risk especially for young children and falling for the elderly. "So securing furniture and rugs at home, making sure the elderly population has access to vision and care to make sure they can get out and walk and drive.
The Home Safety Makeover video is being distributed to social service agencies, hospitals and cable channels. It was was paid for by the Trauma Research Education Foundation. A group supported by the six Trauma Centers in San Diego County and Safe Kids San Diego.
