GREELEY, COLORADO (December 5, 2017) – 6 year old Brooklyn Thill was killed in a tragic accident involving a set of swings at a playground on Tuesday, according to a local news source.(map)
The accident happened after school at the Christa McAullife Stem Academy on December 5th. Brooklyn was playing on some swings meant for children with disabilities, when the swing straps somehow became entangled around her neck.
Brooklyn was immediately rescued and flown to Children’s Hospital of Colorado, where she was tragically pronounced dead some time later. Brooklyn’s parents, Natalie and Nathan Thill, have received an outpouring of support from their local community including a day designated as “Pink Princess Day”, where the community banded together and wore pink to honor Brooklyn’s memory.
This is the second swing set related choking death in the last three weeks in the United States. On November 17, 2017, 10 year old Nashon Green was killed when a chain from a swing set wrapped around his neck and killed him.The most recent Consumer Product Safety Commission study was from 2001-2008, and revealed 2,691 incidents were reported or discovered by the CPSC. From those:
- Swings account for the highest percentage of accidents
- 27/40 of the deaths related to playground equipment were a result of hanging or asphyxiation
Other reports or information indicate that swings account for 50% or more of playground related deaths, and have for decades. In general, an average of 200,000 injuries are reported every year in incidents on playgrounds involving children 14 or younger. Some swing set asphyxiations are as a result of children bringing additional things onto the equipment like dog leashes and ropes, but some seem to be a result of the equipment itself.
“Some products are manufactured in a way that makes them inherently unsafe in order to simply save money during the manufacturing process. Shortcuts cannot be made or lives may be put in danger. Consumer Safety should never be optional,” said the attorneys from HWG Law. “Considering the troubling history of the safety of playground equipment, this accident should be fully investigated.”
