Comment from William Hyman

Deaths due to entrapment in bed rails must be stopped. Such deaths can result from the basic design of the rail, the method of installation, and/or the stability of the installation. The latter are especially important with respect to direct-to-consumer home use "portable" rails, although such rails are also used in nursing homes and other LTC settings. While it may be possible to design a rail that is acceptable in these three ways, there is currently no objective evidence that any rail offers an acceptable level of safety. There are many rails that have been sold and used, and which are still being sold and used, that fail with respect to one or more of these factors. Moreover dangerous rails are advertised as adding safety when in fact they instead add danger, and they typically have no evidence to support a safety claim. The consumer is typically unable to judge the validity of the claims or to make a accurate personal assessment of whether or not a particular rail is safe as installed on the target bed. Even professionals may not be able to make such assessments if not specifically trained as to effective criteria. At a minimum a mandatory standard is needed that will establish objective evidence that a rail is reasonably safe, including on what kind of beds and as they may likely be installed and maintained. Only rails that are consistent with such a standard should be available for sale. Dangerous rails need to be removed from use as well as from sale so that they do not continue to kill people. Furthermore, as an interim measure, it must be required that all current manufacturers and sellers of these rails provide objective evidence derived from appropriate testing that their products are safe under expected and reasonable conditions of use. The CPSC has taken comparable action with respect to cribs and children's rails, and there is no reason that older children and adults do not deserve similar protection