A 2-year-old boy died in a freak accident in his home in New South Wales, Australia, leaving his family heartbroken. The unidentified boy reportedly unintentionally hung himself on a curtain rod with his hoodie. His clothing tightened around his neck, ultimately strangling him to death. Although investigators are looking into the death, it appears to have been a horrific accident.
Emergency responders arrived at the child’s home in Fingal Bay just after noon on June 23, 2025, according to the Daily Mail. Police officers performed CPR while waiting for paramedics from CareFlight to arrive. Sadly, they could not revive the boy, and he died at the scene.
Neighbors told the Daily Telegram, per the Daily Mail, that the child had been playing moments before the accident.
“All we know is she (the child’s mother) was only out of the room like for a minute and he’s jumped up I think and it’s gotten snagged on the (curtain) rod,” a neighbor told the news outlet.
The child’s death has devastated community members, who could not believe such a tragic accident happened so close to home.
“They’re the most beautiful family … we are all still traumatized by yesterday,” a neighbor told the Daily Telegraph.
The incident remains under investigation, and a coroner will perform an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death, 7 News reported.
In 2022, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission set new standards for custom window coverings to help prevent strangulation deaths.
“In an effort to reduce the risk of strangulation deaths and serious life-threatening injuries to children from corded window coverings, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted today, by a vote of 4 to 0, to approve a new federal safety standard for operating cords on custom window coverings. Custom window coverings include shades, blinds, curtains, drapery or other cord-operated products, created to a consumer’s specifications. The Commission also approved a new federal safety rule that added non-compliant window covering cords to CPSC’s substantial product hazard list,” the commission explains on its website.
“Young children can quickly and silently become strangled on pull cords, continuous loop cords, inner cords or any other accessible cords longer than 8 inches on window coverings,” the commission added. “On average, about nine children under 5 years of age die every year from strangling in window blinds, shades, draperies and other window coverings with cords, according to CPSC’s latest data.”
