Father of Girl Killed by Lawn Dart Wins Yearlong Crusade to Ban Toy
A Riverside aerospace engineer on Wednesday won a yearlong, one-man crusade to persuade the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission to ban the metal-tipped toy that killed his young daughter.
Reversing a decision they made in March, members of the commission voted in Bethesda, Md., to ban all lawn darts “capable of causing skull punctures.”
“It’s kind of a bittersweet victory for me,” said David Snow, whose daughter, Michelle, died in April, 1987, after a dart thrown into the air at her home struck her in the head.
“I don’t feel like jumping up and down. I’m just so drained. I’m just grateful I’ve fulfilled my promise to Michelle that no more children will have to go to hospital emergency rooms, that no more will have to die.”
Snow’s campaign against the lawn dart, which received widespread praise from consumer groups as an example of effective public lobbying, resulted in the first product ban initiated by the commission during the Reagan Administration.
Lawn darts have become popular as a yard game, with between 1 million and 1.5 million sold each year. The one-pound, metal-tipped darts are tossed through the air, with the points sticking into the ground in or near a target. Another brand of darts that feature rounded, plastic tips are also manufactured and will not be covered by the ban.
Within weeks of his daughter’s death, Snow began writing letters to the commission, congressmen, the consumer agency and the news media demanding that the dart be banned. He pressured the commission into making a study that found that lawn dart injuries had sent nearly 5,000 children to hospital emergency rooms during the last decade, and that firms importing lawn darts routinely violated federal guidelines requiring “hazardous-to-children” labeling on the packages.
Since 1970, the government has prohibited lawn darts from being sold in toy stores or in toy sections of department stores, but has allowed them to be sold in sporting good stores.
Despite Snow’s lobbying, which included a half-dozen trips to Washington, he was unable to persuade the three members of the product safety commission to vote for a ban. At the most recent vote, held last March, Commissioner Anne Graham wanted to initiate a ban but commission Chairman Terrence Scanlon and Commissioner Carol Dawson refused, both saying they wanted more staff analysis.
On Wednesday, Scanlon appeared to give in. He joined Graham in approving a motion to issue a notice of proposed rule-making to ban all hazardous lawn darts. The ban is expected to take effect in the fall after the mandatory waiting period for public comment.
Scanlon, a conservative Democrat appointed to head the commission five years ago by President Reagan, has been pilloried for years by consumer groups and congressional critics who accused him of neglecting consumer safety in favor of a philosophy of deregulation. Before Snow triggered the lawn dart controversy, Scanlon and his fellow commissioners were being chided for moving too conservatively on disposable cigarette lighters and all-terrain vehicles.
In an interview after the vote, Scanlon insisted he had not changed his position on lawn darts. He noted that he had introduced a motion at the March meeting that called for a ban on metal-tipped darts after the commission staff developed new standards. Scanlon’s banning proposal was rejected at that meeting because Graham objected to the idea of spending more time on staff studies, saying the danger of lawn darts had already been made clear.
Dawson refused to support the ban, arguing that “whenever we regulate, we limit freedom. . . . I would not purchase or use the kind of lawn darts which are the target of the proposal before us. . . . Yet I am not prepared to make that absolute choice for every other American.”
