Dangerous Infant Cribs To Be Banned

Over the years our product liability lawyers have been involved in cases in Georgia in which infants are tragically killed by crib and toy dangers. Now in an effort that we applaud, major manufacturers of infant cribs have agreed on a proposal that would ban drop-side cribs in the United States.
Drop-side cribs allow parents to raise and lower one side for easy access. But bad designs, missing pieces and worn-out hardware have caused the adjustable railings to separate from the cribs. Infants have slid through the resulting gaps suffering injuries and in some cases death by strangulation.
Recently, the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission stepped up investigations of deadly cribs and is moving toward tougher federal rules.
The safety rules to be adopted by the major manufacturers are voluntary, but the biggest crib retailers require that their suppliers follow them.
The new safety rules would require that all four sides of the crib be rigidly attached to one another. That eliminates the moving parts that have broken loose and created entrapment hazards.
The drop side is especially helpful to shorter people or those with back problems. The proposed standard allows a small portion of the top of a crib railing to fold down, and that accomplishes the same goal while minimizing the chance that one side will separate.
Manufacturers in the past have rejected proposals that restrict their designs, preferring instead to mandate tests to detect hazards. However, many of the more than 3 million cribs recalled in the last two years for problems with drop-side railings passed the tests required under safety standards but still failed in consumers’ homes.
A ban on the most common form of drop-side railings would affect all major cribmakers thereby allowing them to stop making the product without losing market share.