We think of it as no less important. Kessler said the analogy between cribs and bed rails is overly simplistic. Bed manufacturers agree. They note, for instance, that hospital beds are adjustable, allowing the head or foot to be raised and lowered. Gaps between mattresses and siderails can be created or changed, depending on the position.
Adults also vary much more widely than children in body size and medical problems.
That's the sort of response you expect to get from industry. This is a simple thing to fix. In making cribs safer, he said, the commission simply looked at the size of a small child's torso and required that the gaps between crib slats be made smaller than that. Preston said it has been apparent since at least the 1970s that bed rails were a problem for the elderly. He came across numerous injury reports while researching problems with children's beds.