Reports of drop sides separating from baby cribs and posing dangers of suffocation and entrapment have been pretty common over the last few years. Several recalls of various drop-side cribs have been announced by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission just this year.
Last Monday, the largest one yet was announced by the CPSC and its counterpart in Canada – 2.1 million drop-side cribs sold under the Stork Craft and Fisher Price brands at numerous regional and national retailers between January 1993 and October of this year is the latest.
Stork Craft/Fisher Price cribs that use a plastic trigger and one-hand drop-side are affected by this recall.
Drop sides breaking, deforming or completely detaching creates a gap between the mattress and the side of the crib, causing a youngster to be trapped. If the drop side totally detaches, it’s possible for the infant to fall completely out of the crib. One of the challenges of course is many cribs are reused or given away to friends and family. Chances of a defect occurring greatly increases each time the crib is broken apart and put back together. Many of the parts were simply not made for long-term use.
Parents are urged to discontinue use immediately and contact Stork Craft for a free repair kit that will change the drop-side to a fixed side.
Officials in the U.S. and Canada have received approximately 110 reports of drop sides detaching -15 cases involved trapping, infants fell completely out of the crib in 20 cases along with 4 unfortunate reports of infants younger than 9-months suffocating.
Many manufacturers are starting to move away from even making drop-side cribs due to the rash of problems in recent years. In fact, many of them announced support for a nationwide ban in March. Instead, drop-gate cribs are much safer and still allow easy access to the toddler.
If you’ve been adversely affected by a defective baby crib, contact Colorado personal injury attorneys at the Babcock Law Firm today for a free consultation and more information.