Kmart and Target are making safety changes at stores across Australia after a spate of kids' injuries caused by clothing rack hooks.
The move from both of the retail giants follows a series of articles published by nine.com.au which revealed the cases of several children who suffered serious eye injuries after falling on the hooks.
In January this year, six-year-old Cecilia Chan almost lost her eye and needed two surgeries after colliding with a clothes hook while shopping with her grandmother at a Kmart store in Chatswood, Sydney.
A month earlier and also in Sydney, a clothing hook impaled five-year-old Saad's eye socket at Target's Parramatta store.
WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES BELOW
A Kmart Australia spokesperson said after reviewing Cecilia's accident it looked at several options for improving the safety of the "apparel arm" hook, which is used industry-wide.
A successful trial was conducted in some NSW Kmart stores earlier this year, and the company was now in the process of placing plastic covers on all of its apparel arm hooks by early next year, the spokesperson said.
Target, which is owned by the same company Wesfarmers, will also introduce the same plastic covers for its apparel arm hooks nationwide, the spokesperson said.
The roll-out will involve adding about 1.2 million caps to cover every apparel hook at Kmart stores and 900,000 caps for Target stores.
"Trials have shown these to significantly reduce the risk of injury or laceration if someone accidentally hits the apparel arm," the spokesperson said.
"With millions of customers visiting our stores every year, the safety of our customers is a responsibility we take very seriously."
Cecilia's mother Jill Huang told nine.com.au she was happy Kmart and Target were making the changes.
"They're doing the right thing. What I want now is for no other kids to get injured like Cecilia was," she said.
However, Ms Huang said she was still upset the changes had not come soon enough to prevent her daughter's traumatic injury.
"I think they should have done it years ago. When Cecilia got hurt I saw there had been previous cases. If they had made those changes earlier then Cecilia would not have gotten injured," she said.
Ms Huang said her daughter's injury had left the whole family devastated.
"It was very scary and Cecilia was in a lot of pain. We were heartbroken," Ms Huang said, adding that Cecilia's grandmother had taken the accident especially hard as she was with her daughter at the time.
Cecilia had a second operation on her eye in June. Her eyesight was not affected by the injury but was still being monitored, Ms Huang said.
Ms Huang said although her daughter's eye had recovered well, it still looked noticeably different from her other eye.
"There is a scar on her eyelid and sometimes one eye looks big and one eye looks small," she said.
Letters received by Ms Huang from NSW Premier Gladys Berejikilian and Minister for Better Regulation Kevin Anderson said SafeWork NSW had attended Kmart's Chatswood store after Cecilia's accident and liaised with them on the planned changes.
Contact reporter Emily McPherson at emcpherson@nine.com.au.
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