Largest Crib Withdrawal Ever In the U.S. History

Federal regulators currently recalled 1 million cribs produced by Simplicity Inc. they took this decision of voluntarily withdrawal after the reports of drop rail on the nation’s largest selling models detach from the crib, thus, creating a gap causing death of nearly three children.

On September 21, 2007, after the investigation conducted by Chicago Tribune, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced to recall or withdraw cribs sold under the names Graco and Simplicity. The agency spokesperson said the company knew about the two deaths of infants in the cribs manufactured by Simplicity using older style hardware. In this type of crib, the drop side was installed upside down. Of the two children died, one was a 9-month-old baby named Liam Johns and the other was a 6 month old in Georgia. More investigations established that the third child died due to the poorly designed cribs.

The CPSC is issuing warning letter to caregivers and parents to check all Graco and Simplicity cribs in order to ensure that the drop side is installed properly and advised consumers having any of the one crib to contact the company so that they may get a repair kit along with new hardware. Even if the crib has new hardware, the consumers should check the drop rail of the cribs to make sure that they are installed properly.

This recall includes various cribs manufactured by Simplicity Inc. sold under the brand names Graco and Simplicity.

These models include the following:

Simplicity Branded Models

• Crib N Changer Combo
• Pooh 4 in 1
• Aspen 4 in 1
• Aspen 3 in 1
• Nursery- in – a –box
• Chelsea

Graco Branded Models

• Ultra 3 in 1
• Ultra 5 in 1
• Ultra 4 in 1
• Whitney
• Aspen 3 in 1
• trio

After the voluntarily withdrawal, the crib recall caused more chaos as U.S. congressional representative demanded to know the reason behind in delaying recall for so long , given that the first incident concerning the use of unsafe cribs occurred as early as 2004. Sen Dick Durbin inquired the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission to elucidate why the agency took above two years and the deaths of three small children before it withdrew I million cribs for hardware and design flaws.

Understanding the seriousness associated with the recall, many parents instantly followed the guidelines issued by the CPSC to contact Simplicity Inc. for obtaining new hardware. The CPSC further stated that the parents should not let their infants sleep in the withdrawn cribs “for even one more night.” However, few weeks after recall it became clear that Simplicity failed to offer parents appropriate resources to make sure that their cribs are safe. Parents who are contacting Simplicity for obtaining a new repair kit discovered that those kits are not easy to come by. Moreover, Simplicity does not have the repair kit prepared.

Approximately, more than after two weeks recall notice went out, Simplicity informed anxious parents that it might take three or four more weeks before they get a new kit to fix crib defect. That is because the CPSC permitted the company to issue the recall before manufacturing and designing the kits. According to the CPSC, it was necessary because of the immediate hazard posed by the dangerous cribs.

In fact, Simplicity did not even inform the parents that kits are not ready. Rather, Simplicity merely sends out replacement parts excluding installation instructions. In fact, there is high possibility that the CPSC have not approved the replacement parts.