Furniture tip-over injuries follow a repeatable physical pattern. A chest of drawers that is entirely stable while closed becomes unstable the moment a drawer is open and a child is on it.
Opening a drawer moves the centre of mass forward
A closed chest keeps its mass inside its footprint, so the weight sits over the base and the unit is stable in every direction.
Pulling out a loaded drawer moves a large share of that mass in front of the front edge. The unit is now leaning forward before anyone touches it.
Opening two or three drawers compounds this. Each one shifts more weight beyond the base, and the tipping point moves closer with every drawer that comes out.
A child adds load exactly where it does most harm
Children use open drawers as a staircase, because at that height they function exactly like steps. The behaviour is developmentally ordinary rather than unusual.
A child standing on the lowest open drawer applies weight at the point furthest from the base and highest above the floor. That is the most effective possible position for tipping a unit.
The child's own weight need not be large. Leverage does the work, and a modest load at the end of a long arm is enough to overcome the remaining stability.
Why lighter and taller furniture is worse
Stability depends on the ratio between height, base depth and weight distribution. Tall narrow units with shallow bases have very little margin before they go over.
Lightweight flat-pack construction reduces the counterweight that holds a unit down while keeping the height. The mass sits mostly in the contents rather than the frame.
Placing a television on top of such a unit raises the centre of mass further. The combination of a high load and a shallow base is the arrangement most frequently implicated.
Anchoring is the standard response for a reason
Restraint straps or brackets fixed to the wall prevent forward rotation regardless of how the drawers are loaded. They address the mechanism rather than the behaviour.
Supervision does not scale to this risk. Tip-overs are silent to set up and take a fraction of a second to complete, and they happen in rooms adults are not in.
Anchoring hardware is now supplied with most storage furniture, and fitting it depends on finding sound fixing points in the wall. Plasterboard requires appropriate fixings rather than the supplied screws alone.
Rented and temporary settings are where it lapses
Tenancy restrictions on drilling, house moves and holiday accommodation all produce periods where furniture stands unanchored in a home with young children.
Grandparents' homes are a recurring gap, because the furniture predates the children and was never assessed for a climbing toddler.
Where anchoring is not possible, reducing height, moving heavy items to lower drawers and removing the climbing incentive from the top surface all lower the tipping moment. None of these substitutes fully for a fixing.