In 1987  David Snow bought his kids a volleyball set. The box, labeled "Family Fun" also contained two other games, one of them a set of sharp, heavy "lawn darts." Snow thought them dangerous and left them in the box. But one day some neighborhood children found them, and seven-year-old Michele Snow died in her father's arms, a lawn dart embedded in her skull.

Snow and his family were devastated. They couldn't believe a toy so dangerous was sold next to the Barbie dolls and carried only an unobtrusive printed warning. When Snow heard of another death from the darts, he took unpaid leave from his job and set out to get the toy banned.

In his early meetings with the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC), Snow was horrified to discover that lawn darts had already been banned once, in 1970, after an earlier death. The ban was lifted after a legal challenge by the manufacturers, with certain restrictions. The darts were not to be sold in toy stores or toy departments; they could not be packaged with other games, and they must carry a bold warning label. By 1987 all 14 manufacturers of lawn darts were marketing them illegally. Snow was appalled. "There are too many people in this world with their brains in their billfolds," he told us.

Snow spent over a year traveling back and forth between his home in Riverside, California, and Washington, D.C. Since the CPSC was unwilling to enforce safety regulations, Snow arranged to give testimony at the Congressional hearings to reauthorize the Commission. His plea for stronger regulation of hazardous toys had a tremendous impact on legislators already convinced the Commission was dragging it feet on safety issues. Veterans on Capitol Hill said they'd never seen anyone as dedicated and persistent as David Snow.

Snow's lobbying began to pay off. His senator and congressman sponsored a bill to ban the darts. After "60 Minutes" took an interest in Snow's quest, the ban was finally put through by both the CPSC and Congress. It was a victory, but one that came too late for 6,100 people, mostly children, who had been badly injured by the darts, 200 of them with skull penetrations.

David Snow hasn't quit. He's created the Michele Snow Foundation to act as a national voice to protect children from the many unsafe toys and household items still in our stores. According to Snow, "Lawn darts were just the tip of the iceberg."

Update: Lawn darts were removed from stores the week before Christmas 1988 and banned from sale in the US. Canada followed with a similar ban and today fully assembled individual lawn darts, sets, and kits are banned from sale in, or entry into, both countries.