Focus on beach umbrella safety after accidents have caused injuries

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Focus on beach umbrella safety after accidents have caused injuries



It was on a beautiful beach day back in July 2011 that something you might not even think of as a dangerous object changed a Harwich man's life forever.

Rod Cartocci says on that summer day in Dennis, the wind picked up and a stranger's Straight Umbrella "blinded him in his left eye."

"I heard this flapping noise and I turned my head and the next thing I saw was the point of that umbrella," recalled Cartocci, a retired public school health teacher. He's working with congressional leaders to encourage the CPSC to develop a uniform rating system for how much wind an umbrella can withstand.

And he'd like the CPSC to work with manufacturer's to develop a safer umbrella.

"There will likely be some weighted instrument or lever or hook that helps the umbrella stay in place and you know, an example, perfect example is the patio umbrella," Houton said. "Years ago, before that was fixed, because it was, patio umbrellas were flying all over the place."

As for Cartocci, he now wears an acrylic contact lens, and the blindness has affected his balance and spine, but the former teacher also worries most about children getting hurt.