Decorative Yard Equipment
Twenty years of CPSC NEISS emergency-room records for this consumer product category, combined with demographic breakdowns, multi-year injury trends, and matching recall notices.
Lawn & Garden Equipment · CPSC Code 1417
No trend data
The verdict
Decorative Yard Equipment carry a danger score of 36/100 (low risk), driven by roughly 13,930 ER-treated injuries a year that are stable over the most recent five-year window.
- 36/100
- danger score (low risk)
- 13,930
- ER visits per year (avg)
- 6.6%
- end in hospital admission
- 5-14
- most-injured age group
Every figure is rendered from the CPSC NEISS record for product code 1417 - last data year 2008.
PlainSafety danger score
How this 36/100 score is built
The score is computed from four CPSC-derived factors for decorative yard equipment - no opinion, no editorializing:
- Injury volume13,930 ER visits/yr
- Severity (hospitalization rate)6.6%
- Fatality rate0.03%
- 5-year trendN/A
See the full methodology for the exact weighting of each factor.
What the CPSC Data Shows
Decorative Yard Equipment (CPSC product code 1417, in the Lawn & Garden Equipment category) generate an estimated 13,930 emergency-room visits every year in the United States, adding up to roughly 55,721 ER-treated injuries across the 4-year span from 2005 to 2008. PlainSafety derives a danger score of 36/100 for this category (low risk), combining raw injury volume, demographic reach, severity of outcome, and multi-year trend. The five-year trajectory shows that injury counts are stable over the most recent five-year window, with the busiest year on record being 2007 (15,833 estimated ER visits) and the quietest 2005 (11,928 estimated visits).
The single most common ER diagnosis for decorative yard equipment is laceration to the face, accounting for approximately 5,125 visits across the 20-year NEISS window, followed by internal injury to the head (2,886 cases). The 5-14 age group absorbs the largest share of injuries, about 10,311 cases over the NEISS window, and males appear slightly more often than the opposite sex in that cohort. Severity outcomes from the NEISS disposition field show that 6.6% of ER visits involving this product end in hospital admission or transfer, and a small fraction (0.03%) result in fatality.
Beyond the hospital-sampled NEISS projections, this page also aggregates 0 consumer incident reports filed directly on SaferProducts.gov, plus 20 anonymized ER narratives - together forming a layered picture of how decorative yard equipment fail in real households. Every figure on this page comes from CPSC-published data: NEISS projects national estimates from a probability sample of about 100 U.S. hospital emergency departments, while SaferProducts.gov collects voluntary reports from consumers, manufacturers, and clinicians. The danger score, trend indicators, and demographic breakdowns update automatically when CPSC releases a new yearly NEISS file, which is why this page is dated 2008-12-31. For regulatory context, consult CPSC recall notices and the SaferProducts.gov public database linked below.
Annual Injury Estimates (2005–2008)
Source: CPSC NEISS national estimates CPSC NEISS national estimates Injuries represent ER-treated cases only
Who Gets Injured?
| Age Group | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-4 | 2,752 | 1,621 | |
| 5-14 | 6,578 | 3,733 | |
| 15-24 | 5,626 | 2,099 | |
| 25-34 | 2,870 | 2,421 | |
| 35-44 | 2,914 | 2,556 | |
| 45-54 | 3,195 | 3,135 | |
| 55-64 | 1,971 | 2,248 | |
| 65-74 | 1,738 | 2,933 | |
| 75+ | 3,045 | 4,287 |
Most Common Injuries
| Body Part | Diagnosis | Est. Injuries |
|---|---|---|
| Face | Laceration | |
| Head | Internal Injury | |
| Head | Laceration | |
| Finger | Laceration | |
| Hand | Laceration | |
| Lower Trunk | Strain, Sprain | |
| Ankle | Strain, Sprain | |
| Hand | Contusions, Abr. | |
| Face | Contusions, Abr. | |
| Hand | Fracture | |
| Lower Trunk | Fracture | |
| Wrist | Fracture | |
| Foot | Contusions, Abr. | |
| Lower Trunk | Contusions, Abr. | |
| Finger | Fracture |
Severity Breakdown
ER Visit Narratives
Real anonymized emergency room reports from the CPSC NEISS database.
CUT TO FINGER ON MAIL BOX DX: FINGER LACERATION
PT SLIPPED WHILE OPENING MAILBOX AND SPRAINED ANKLE
PT C/O HURT WRIST CLOSING MAILBOX. DX CONT LFT WRIST.
PT WITH SEVERE LOWER BACK PAIN AFTER MOVING YARD DECOR
PT NWAS WALKING BACK FROM THE MAILBOX AND FOOT SLIPPED OFF A DECORATIVEPAVER STRAINED ANKLE
PT PLAYING FOOTBALL AT HOME BEING THROWN THE BALL AND RAN INTO A MAILBX SUSTAINED A LACERATION TO SCALP
PATIENT WAS FILLING THE BIRD FEEDERS WITH BIRD SEED; SUDDENLY DEVELOPEDCOUGH AND TRANSIENT CHOKING SPELL. COUGH; TRANSIENT CHOKING.
HELPED SPOUSE TO MIOVE A STONE FOUNTAINPAIN RIGHT SHOULDER JOINT
12YOF WAS SITTING ON A LARGE MAILBOX,SLIPPED OFF FALLING APPROXIMATELYFOUR FEET;ELBOW CONTUSION
10YOM WAS SLED RIDING AT HOME,RAN INTO THE MAILBOX,FEET FIRST;FOOT FRACTURE
PT WAS INTOXICATED BAC 313 AND FELL INTO A FOUNTAIN STRAINED LOWER BACK
ON *** FELL TODAY WHIEL AMBULATING TO MAILBOX, LANDED ONTO SHOULDER>> HUMRUS FX/ELEVATED INR
Product Recalls
Search for active and past recalls related to decorative yard equipment on the CPSC website.
Frequently Asked Questions
How dangerous are decorative yard equipment?
Based on 20 years of CPSC data, decorative yard equipment have a danger score of 36/100 (low risk). An estimated 13,930 ER-treated injuries occur annually in the U.S. related to this product category.
What are the most common injuries from decorative yard equipment?
The most common injury is laceration to the face, accounting for approximately 5,125 injuries over 20 years.
Are injuries from decorative yard equipment increasing or decreasing?
No trend data.
Who is most at risk for decorative yard equipment injuries?
The 5-14 age group accounts for the most injuries, with approximately 10,311 cases recorded over 20 years. Males are more frequently injured in this age group.
What happens when someone is injured by decorative yard equipment?
Of all ER visits involving decorative yard equipment, approximately 6.6% result in hospital admission. The majority of patients (93.4%) are treated and released from the emergency department.
How can I report a safety problem with decorative yard equipment?
You can file a consumer incident report at SaferProducts.gov, the official CPSC reporting portal. Reports help the CPSC identify emerging hazards and trigger investigations or recalls. You can also call the CPSC hotline at 1-800-638-2772.
Related Products in Lawn & Garden Equipment
Safety Guides
What this means for you
Treat the 36/100 score as relative risk between products, not your personal odds of injury.
- See where this category ranks against every other tracked product. Full rankings
- Injuries cluster in the 5-14 age group, take extra care if that describes your household.
- Check for active recalls on this product before you assume it is safe. CPSC recalls
NEISS estimates ER-treated injuries from a national probability sample of hospitals; they do not capture injuries treated elsewhere or not treated at all.
Data: CPSC National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) 2005–2024 and SaferProducts.gov consumer incident reports. Injury estimates are based on a nationally representative probability sample of U.S. hospital emergency departments. This page is for informational purposes only and is not affiliated with the CPSC.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, scored, and verified.
