ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- A shopping cart designed to minimize the chance of tipping over or allowing a child to fall out won a nationwide contest of young engineers, sponsored by the Junior Engineering Technical Society here.
Approximately 25,000 children are hurt each year falling out of shopping carts, according to published reports.
Students from West Perry High School, Elliotsburg, Pa., designed a six-wheel cart made of steel, with nylon webbing around the sides and a nylon child seat in the front, positioned so the child sits forward.
"When the child is facing you, if he stands up and crawls out, it puts a lot of pressure on one side of the cart, causing it to tip," said Mike Peralta, executive director of the Junior Engineering Technical Society, which sponsored the National Engineering Design Challenge.
"The new design has six wheels so it's more stable," he added. "The cart also changes the position of the child, so if the child tries to crawl out he's moving toward the center of the cart."
