I read about this and got chills up my spine. One million cribs recalled...entrapment...three babies dead.
The recall of several models of Simplicity and Graco cribs (models listed after the jump) was announced yesterday by the CPSC, two years after a California lawyer alerted them when a nine-month old baby died in a faulty crib. Two years and two more deaths later, the cribs are being recalled. I understand that the recall process may be arduous (though manufacturers are free at any time to announce their own recalls), but how do you explain that to the parents of the two babies who died needlessly after the original report was made?
The cribs being recalled are a variety of models by Simplicity and Graco in which the crib's drop sides had been installed upside down (see photos of improper installation at the CPSC web site), leaving a gap the baby could fall into and suffocate in. Seven other infants had also been entrapped there, and in addition there were 55 reports of the crib's drop sides detaching or the hardware falling that attaches the side to the crib.
The recalled cribs were sold from $100 to $300 at Target, Big Lots, Babies "R" Us and Meijer from January 1998 through May 2007.
The Simplicity model cribs recalled are:
- Aspen 3 in 1
- Aspen 4 in 1
- Nursery-in-a-Box
- Crib N Changer Combo
- Chelsea
- Pooh 4 in 1
And the Simplicity-made cribs sold under the Graco label that are affected are:
- Aspen 3 in 1
- Ultra 3 in 1
- Ultra 4 in 1
- Ultra 5 in 1
- Whitney
- Trio
In all cases, affected model numbers, found in an envelope attached to the mattress support and on the label attached to the headboard, are: 4600, 4605, 4705, 5000, 8000, 8324, 8800, 8740, 8910, 8994, 8050, 8750, 8760 and 8996.
Simplicity is offering free repairs for the models with older hardware (here's how you can tell if yours is the "old" or the "new" hardware). You can contact them at their web site or by phoning 888-593-9274.
