Unsafe Bed Rails Have Led to Hundreds of Deaths and Thousands of Injuries. They’re Still Easy to Buy.

Adult portable bed rails are devices designed to be attached to a standard bed to reduce the likelihood of falls and to assist users with repositioning themselves or getting into and out of bed. (Unlike the rails on most hospital beds, they are not integrated into the bed’s design.) They are used in private homes and also in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and other care settings.

Federal law requires care facilities to discuss bed rail risks with residents and families and to obtain informed consent before installing one, but this requirement is not uniformly enforced. 

Portable bed rails are sold widely by major retailers. Models come in various shapes and sizes, including full-length and half-length models, as well as “bed handles,” which are typically the shortest type. Most are attached to the bed by sliding a “base” section between the mattress and box spring. Tens of thousands of adult bed rails are sold annually at prices ranging from about $35 to more than $100.

Federal health and safety agencies have warned about bed rail entrapment risks since at least 1995, when the FDA published a safety alert about the dangers of entrapment in hospital bed rails. 

From January 2003 through September 2021, the CPSC received reports of 300 fatalities (PDF) involving adult portable bed rails. In 92 percent of those cases, the death was caused when the victim’s head or neck became stuck, wedged, or otherwise entrapped, often between the mattress and the bed rail or between the bed rail bars. Asphyxia caused by the neck pressing against the bed rail is the most frequent cause of bed rail deaths. Seven percent of the deaths were due to falls involving the bed rail. 

Most of the people who died were especially vulnerable. According to CPSC data, the majority of victims were 70 or older, and more than half had serious physical or mental medical conditions that made it difficult or impossible for them to free themselves once entrapped. 

About half of the reported bed rail incidents took place in homes. The rest occurred in nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, hospice settings, and other locations.

The CPSC estimated that at least 74,000 people were treated in emergency rooms for injuries involving bed rails during the same time period. 

Since 2021, the CPSC has announced a total of 38 recalls and 14 product safety warnings involving more than 2 million portable adult bed rails. These products were associated with at least 13 reported deaths and numerous serious injuries.

In 2022, the year before the adult safety standard went into effect, the CPSC estimated that there were an average of 17 reported fatalities involving bed rails each year.

These numbers are likely an underestimate. Safety experts caution that injuries and deaths may go unreported for a number of reasons, including facilities (like nursing homes) not reporting the incident and signs of asphyxiation by bed rail not always being identified.

A mandatory safety standard to reduce entrapment, asphyxiation, and other risks has been in place for portable bed rails marketed for children since 2012. 

But despite mounting adult fatalities, a similar standard for adult portable bed rails did not take effect until more than a decade later.

Many experts say there might still not be a mandatory safety standard for adult portable bed rails if it were not for the determination and drive of one woman: Gloria Black, a teacher whose crusade for bed rail safety began after her 81-year-old mother died in an incident involving a bed rail in 2007. 

“My mother had dementia and had fallen out of bed in the facility where she was living,” Black recalls. “A staff member suggested my father get a bed rail for her. He wanted to do whatever he could to protect her, so he bought and installed the rail, thinking it would make her safer. About a month later, I got a call from the facility telling me that she was dead.”

Black says that she had not been made aware of the exact circumstances of how her mother died until after she received the death certificate, which listed asphyxia due to neck compression on a portable bed rail as the cause of death. “I thought it had to be wrong, but the coroner confirmed it.” 

Black says that a month later she received a call from the state ombudsman’s office asking if she was aware of the role of the bed rail in her mother’s death and informing her that the state was investigating the use of bed rails with other patients in her mother’s facility. 

“I was not informed by the facility,” Black says. “After that phone call, my father and I both decided that we would have to take action to help prevent these deaths. That was the moment my advocacy began. I was on a mission that I pursued 100 percent of the time.” 

She says that one of the first things she discovered was that there were multiple reports of deaths associated with bed rails made by the same company that had manufactured the rail involved in her mother’s death. She also found many cases that were strikingly similar. 

As part of her research and lobbying campaign to end bed rail deaths, Black spent years contacting the FDA, the CPSC, bed rail manufacturers, and lawmakers. In 2013, after hearing from Black, Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley and four other senators called on the CPSC to create safety regulations, educate the public and caregivers, and use its recall authority to avoid future deaths.

That same year, Black—along with the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, the Consumer Federation of America, and 60 other organizations—petitioned the CPSC to ban adult portable bed rails, arguing that they pose an unreasonable risk of injury and death, particularly to elderly and frail individuals, and that no safety standard “would adequately protect the public from the unreasonable risk of injury associated with these products.” The groups also urged the commission to establish a mandatory safety standard if a ban was not granted.

Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization, submitted a separate petition calling for a complete ban, arguing that no feasible safety standard could adequately address the risks. The CPSC considered the petitions together.

Instead of banning adult portable bed rails or implementing a mandatory standard, the commission decided to develop voluntary safety standards first, working with the standards-setting organization ASTM International (CR is an active member of ASTM). The voluntary standard was published in 2017 and established several core requirements, including a permanent retention system to, among other things, keep the rails securely in place to address the risk of people slipping between the rail and the mattress. 

It also established testing protocols for four “entrapment zones” where nearly all reported fatalities had occurred. The standard also required warning labels on product packaging and on the rails themselves, alerting users to entrapment, strangulation, suffocation, and fall hazards, particularly for frail and vulnerable individuals.

Beginning the following year, the CPSC tested 35 adult portable bed rail models representative of the market: 94 percent failed the entrapment requirements, and 80 percent failed the retention system requirements. Not a single adult portable bed rail the CPSC tested met the voluntary standard designed to reduce the risk of injury and death.

When the CPSC tested 17 additional models three years later, again, not one of them met the voluntary standard. The CPSC concluded that “there continues to be little-to-no market compliance with the voluntary standard.”

Taking into account the continued fatalities and persistent noncompliance, the CPSC proposed a mandatory safety standard that went into effect in August 2023, a decade—and more than 150 additional reported fatalities—after Black and the consumer groups first petitioned the agency to ban the products or require a mandatory safety standard.

Many safety advocates and experts see the mandatory standard as an important—but partial—victory, saying that it will likely save lives but that unsafe bed rails are still being sold and people are still dying. 

Courtney Griffin, director of consumer product safety at the Consumer Federation of America, an association of nonprofit consumer organizations including CR, says that the mandatory standard is an important step in the right direction, but that more work needs to be done to prevent injuries and save lives. “If these devices are not meeting the safety, standards they should not be allowed to be sold,” she says. She adds that the CPSC also needs to continue to “diligently collect data about injuries and deaths and act robustly if safety gaps exist,” noting that she sees the recent string of recalls as an encouraging sign that the CPSC is strongly enforcing the safety standard. 

Black says she’d still prefer to see portable bed rails banned. “I advocated for a ban because I don’t believe there’s any way to make bed rails safe,” she says. “Even if a model meets the safety standard, we can’t control how people install and use them—a compliant product that’s used incorrectly can still cause a fatality.” She advocates for safer alternatives, such as lowering the bed and placing cushions on the floor.

Recent CR testing of 10 adult and six children’s bed rail models found that dangerous products remain easy to purchase despite federal safety standards. 

Of the 10 adult models tested, four failed because of breakage or risk of entrapment. One of the six children’s bed rails failed because of breakage. (Due to technical limitations, CR was unable to test children’s bed rails for entrapment.) 

“It is particularly concerning that so many of the products failed the entrapment or breakage testing,” CR’s Shin says. “A product that breaks, snaps, or puts people at risk of entrapment or strangulation can result in serious injury or death.”

The four adult bed rails that failed at least one of our tests for breakage or entrapment were: Ceither Bed Rails for Elderly Adults Safety, KingPavonini Bed Rail for Elderly, Liuqibax Bed Rails for Elderly Adults Safety, Sangohe Bed Rail for Elderly.

The children’s bed rail that failed at least one of our tests for breakage was the Upgogo Folding Toddler Bed Rails for Crib.

Ceither, KingPavonini, Liuqibax, Sangohe, and Upgogo did not respond to our request for comment.

CR also identified issues with warning labels on several products. Given the importance of these labels, we contacted companies to let them know.

The mandatory safety standard requires warning statements in the packaging and instructions as well as warning labels on at least one component of the bed rail to encourage correct installation and to ensure that users are aware of the risks bed rails can pose, particularly to people with cognitive impairment or who try to climb over the rail. The labels must also warn that incorrect installation could create gaps that can lead to “entrapment and death.”

One company we contacted, Nutikas, responded to CR immediately and said they had “identified the technical discrepancies in our previous instructional manual regarding the warning label font size and the explicit adult-assembly warning” and took immediate corrective action, noting that “all future shipments will include this revised literature.” 

The chart below lists how the products performed in CR’s tests.

CR’s Shin and other safety advocates say it’s imperative for all companies that make and sell bed rails—many of them located abroad—to adhere to U.S. safety requirements. (All the models that failed CR’s safety tests were made overseas.)

In addition to manufacturers’ role in following mandatory safety standards and acting quickly when a consumer reports a safety issue, “the CPSC must continue to monitor the marketplace, use its enforcement authority, and press companies to recall noncompliant bedrails as soon as an issue is discovered,” Shin says.

The current head of the CPSC says that is exactly what the agency is doing. “CPSC is taking the problem of unsafe adult portable bedrails seriously and has increased its enforcement since the mandatory federal safety standard took effect,” acting CPSC chairman Peter A. Feldman said in a statement provided to CR. “The violative products CPSC has identified are almost exclusively manufactured overseas, primarily in China, by companies that refuse to follow U.S. safety requirements. The standard provides CPSC with clear authority to take decisive action against these bad actors, including removing dangerous products from the marketplace, to protect older Americans. CPSC will continue to act where we see violations.” 

Shin says that the flurry of recent recalls the CPSC has issued suggests that the agency is prioritizing bed rail safety but that more action is required to combat the flood of unsafe models on the U.S. market. “We would support the CPSC taking any additional steps to protect consumers and establishing a strong deterrent against breaking the rules, including exploring every option the agency has to press online marketplaces not to sell violative products in the first place.” Shin says third-party sellers on online platforms are a major source of unsafe bed rails. All but two of the bed rail models CR tested were purchased online, from major retailers. 

“Digital platforms should be held accountable for all of the products that are sold on their marketplace—not just by the CPSC, but by Congress and the states,” Shin says, explaining that current federal and state laws were largely created before the rise of online shopping. “Federal product safety and state product liability laws need to be strengthened to provide robust oversight of online platforms, ensuring they can be held accountable for the safety of the products being sold on their platform, just as brick-and-mortar retailers, distributors, and manufacturers currently are.” 

A nationally representative Consumer Reports survey (PDF) from October 2025 shows broad public support for that goal: 84 percent of consumers said that online retailers should be responsible for the safety of products sold by third-party sellers, just as walk-in stores are responsible for the safety of all products they sell.

Because of the risks posed by bed rails, safety experts and advocates alike encourage caregivers to first consider alternatives before deciding to use a portable bed rail. “If the bed rail is intended to try to prevent a person from rolling out of bed, there may be safer and more appropriate options,” says Lori Smetanka, executive director of the advocacy organization the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care. 

Smetanka and other advocates say that lowering the bed, placing the mattress on the floor, and placing cushioned mats on the floor around the bed are among the ways to reduce the risk of fall-related injuries without introducing the potential dangers that come with using a portable bed rail. If mobility assistance is needed, people can also consider aids such as wall-mounted grab bars or transfer poles, suggests Ashita Kapoor, director of product safety at Consumer Reports.

Shin says consumers can also use CR’s testing results to choose safer products in this category. “A handful of the bed rails passed CR’s safety tests—including for breakage and entrapment—which means that consumers can have confidence in these specific products and that it’s feasible for manufacturers to produce them.” 

Safety advocates warn against purchasing used portable bed rails, which could have been made before the safety standards went into effect or might have been subject to a safety recall or warning. For example, the CPSC in January issued a warning for CanFord bed rails because of the risk of entrapment and asphyxiation, but the hazardous model was still being sold on resale sites as recently as June.

Experts say that consumers who choose to use a bed rail need to exercise extreme care to install it correctly. “There are several points throughout the installation process where error can occur and create a risky situation,” CFA’s Griffin says. “So carefully follow the instructions and always double-check to make sure the bed rail can’t be moved away from the mattress to create a gap where someone could become entrapped.” 

Nancy Cowles, former executive director of Kids In Danger, a child safety organization, warns consumers to be on the lookout for deceptive or meaningless claims, such as “ASTM Approved.” “That’s not a meaningful claim. ASTM doesn’t approve or certify anything,” Cowles says. “The kind of claim you want to see is that the product meets CPSC regulations and, ideally for adult bed rails, has been tested by a third-party lab.” (Children’s bed rails are required by law to be tested.)

According to the CPSC, children’s bed rails are designed for children who can get into and out of bed on their own (typically ages 2 to 5). Many of the child injuries and deaths have occurred when parents used bed rails in an attempt to protect much younger children sleeping in regular beds. 

“The safest place for any infant to sleep is in a crib that meets the CPSC crib and bassinet standards,” says Ben Hoffman, MD, a pediatrician at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland and past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. (See our previous coverage for more advice on safe infant sleep.)

Hoffman says the best way to avoid the risks posed by portable bed rails is simply not to use them. “It’s never necessary to use a supplemental child bed rail. Parents might choose to use one because they believe they’re protecting their child from falls, but there are better, safer options.” 

He says one alternative, for parents who can afford it, is a toddler bed with built-in bed rails. “But you could also do something as simple as putting the mattress on the floor. No child is going to hurt themselves rolling from a mattress that’s on the floor. There will always be a better alternative than some secondary aftermarket solution like a portable bed rail, especially when you’re talking about kids.”

Above all, safety advocates say, never assume that a portable bed rail—whether for adults or children—is without risk. “I think we all assume that if a product is being sold, someone’s checking to make sure it’s safe,” Griffin says. “That’s just not true. There may be no one checking.”