The drawers on a heavy piece of furniture which crushed and killed Perth toddler Reef Kite slide forward easily on their metal rollers and the whole unit can quickly topple over, an inquest has been told.

The video of a police re-enactment showing how unstable the unsecured chest of drawers which asphyxiated the 22-month-old could be was shown at the hearing into his death.

"It was hard enough for an adult to stop the drawers falling forward," Senior Constable Steven Barnes, from the investigating forensic team, told the court.

"A young child wouldn't have a hope."

Mother's plea for change

Outside court, his mother Skye Quartermaine pleaded for regulations to be changed so landlords could not prevent tenants from securing furniture to the wall, as had occurred with her.

"I would fully advocate and work with anyone willing to help change the law to allow parents to bolt that furniture without no ramifications for it," she said.

Skye Quartermaine (second from left) with family members. She says lives must come before property. ( ABC News: Nicolas Perpitch )

Ms Quartermaine had put Reef down for his regular nap in his bedroom at their Yokine home about 11:30am on October 13, 2015.

She checked on her son several times, even changing his soiled nappy at one point.

But when she came back at 2:45pm, she saw the 1.25 metre tall chest of drawers had fallen over and pinned him underneath.

The court was told he was facing the bedroom door and lying on his right side.

'My family will always be incomplete'

She lifted the piece of furniture off him, revealing a mark on the left side of his face where a drawer had hit him, and picked up her unresponsive son.

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She ran to her neighbour's home and he tried to resuscitate Reef before paramedics transported him to Princess Margaret Hospital, but he was declared dead at 3:34pm.

"My family will always be incomplete," she said outside court.

"My child will never grow up. I'll never see him graduate high school or get married for the first time, because of one little bracket that could have saved his life."

She had bought the chest of drawers three months earlier at a pine furniture shop.

She said it did not come with brackets to fix it to the wall or a warning, and her landlord refused to let her secure it to the wall.

Senior Constable Fiona Thorpe, formerly of the coronial investigations team, told the inquest there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing, rather the drawers had slid out and the unit had fallen on Reef.

The police re-enactment video showed that as soon as police opened a drawer it slid all the way out on metal runners, and after a few drawers were opened it toppled over.

Senior Constable Thorpe said children under five were most at risk.

"They don't understand the concept of danger," she said.

She urged parents to select safer furniture, fix it to the wall and place locks on the drawers.

'If you're two or three everything looks like a ladder'

Kidsafe WA chief executive officer Scott Phillips, who also gave evidence, explained one or two children died every year from furniture-related injuries across Australia, and almost 150 had been injured in Western Australia alone.

He recommended retailers provided information at the point of sale on the dangers, or include a bracket to secure the furniture.

"If you're only two or three, everything looks like a ladder, and you will try," he said.

He said Kidsafe WA was working with Consumer Protection to prevent landlords from stopping parents securing furniture to walls.