Strollers Sold Nationwide Being Recalled After Deaths Reported

Protecting your child is a natural instinct. For many parents, especially first time parents, extensive preparations go into the arrival of a newborn. Parents will baby proof their homes to make it a safe environment for their growing children.

There are many ways that parents can protect their children when out of the house as well. There are car seats built for infants that keep them from getting hurt in the backseat and strollers used to transport babies safely from one place to another. So what happens when a child dies as a result of a defective stroller?

For Graco, a baby products company, this question became a reality when four infants died in their Graco strollers over a period of 2 years. Due to a design defect, the infants would get tangled in their straps and die from strangulation if they slid through an opening of the stroller near their feet. There were several other reports of babies getting twisted in the straps, sustaining other injuries.

As a result, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a recall for over 2 million Graco strollers that were sold before 2007. There is a safety issue revolving around these strollers and the recall is a way to mitigate any further deaths or injuries. If more injuries are reported as a result of the strollers, Graco, and their parent company Rubbermaid, could potentially be liable for those incidents.

Parents may not even realize that their stroller has been recalled and is a potentially dangerous product. It is better to find out before anything happens. But for some families, like the families who lost their children, the recall comes too late.

Source: MSNBC online, “4 infant deaths prompt Graco stroller recall,” Associated Press, 20 October 2010