Push for Stronger Window Safety Rules

SAINT PAUL, Minn. - There's a debate about a new window safety law. It went into effect last year, but now some lawmakers think it doesn't go far enough to keep kids safe.

It's been years since two children fell out of windows at the apartment buildings he helped develop, but Jim Graham is still trying to protect other children from sharing the same fate.

Graham helped lead the charge to pass Laela's Law, after Laela Shaogobay, a 2-year-old was injured after falling 4 stories from a window at the Many Rivers apartment complex in Minneapolis.

The law directed the commissioner of Labor and Industry to develop new building code standards for windows to keep children from falling out.

But Graham says those standards, which went into effect last July and require stronger screens and other safety devices on windows 24 inches from the floor or lower, missed their window of opportunity to do any good.

"The law as it is right now doesn't protect children. It does nothing at 24 inches. You have the same number of children falling out of windows and dying," said Graham.

Minnesota Senator Linda Berglin, who wrote and tried to amend the original law, says lobbyists for landlords and builders argued that those window safety devices could be a danger if there is a fire.

But she says the real danger is leaving Laela's Law as it is.

"The reason we have a building code is to make our buildings safer for people to live in and that includes our little children. This would have done that but now it's so weakened, I'm not sure it will protect any child,” said Berglin.

Her amendment to change those standards from 24 inches to 42 inches was voted down by a senate committee Wednesday afternoon. She says she will try again next year.

About 5,000 kids in the U.S. are injured each year from falls out of windows. On average about 19 kids under the age of 10 die from the fall.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends installing window stops so that windows open no more than four inches and never depend on screens to keep kids from falling out of windows.