This past weekend, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and Simplicity Inc. announced the largest crib recall in history - around one million cribs, including the popular Aspen 3-in-1 line - because of hardware failures and the risk of the drop-side becoming detached, in part because many parents and caregivers are accidentally installing the drop-sides upside-down.

But this drop-side risk - which has had fatal consequences - has been known to the CPMC for years now. From a Chicago Tribune report:

The drop rail had detached from its plastic track, creating a gap through which the 9-month-old boy slipped feet-first. Instead of falling to the floor, Liam got his head stuck between the rail and the mattress. Trapped in a hanging position, the boy asphyxiated.

Liam’s April 2005 death prompted an investigation by a federal watchdog agency and a family lawsuit against the crib’s manufacturer, Simplicity Inc.

But the company and the Consumer Product Safety Commission didn’t warn parents across the country about the potentially fatal flaw in Simplicity cribs–not after Liam suffocated, not after more complaints about the crib rails and not after two more infants died.

The two other deaths were of a six-month-old in November, 2006, and an eight-month-old this past February. These deaths also occurred when the babies were trapped between the mattress and a separated drop-rail.

So what finally prompted the recall of one million Simplicity cribs (some sold under the brand name Graco)? Apparently, phone calls to the CPSC and Simplicity from the Chicago Tribune.

Over at the Consumerist:

The CPSC is denying that the reporter’s questioning had anything to do with its decision to recall the cribs, but after 55 complaints, seven infants trapped and three deaths over several years… why did the CPSC suddenly decide to recall the cribs? According to Chicago Tribune reporter Maurice Possley, the CPSC didn’t even pick up the crib from the storage locker where it was being held by the [baby Liam’s] familiy’s lawyer until the Tribune informed them of their intention to publish an investigative report.

Furthermore, Simplicity and the CPSC were aware of a potential drop-side problem as early as 2003:

According to records obtained from the agency through the federal Freedom of Information Act, the first complaint to the CPSC about a drop-rail problem with the crib came in July 2003 from a woman in Meridian, Miss. It involved the rail suddenly falling down, but not separating from the crib.

A CPSC investigator tried to find the crib in December, five months later. By then the woman had returned it to the store for a refund. The crib was gone, according to a copy of the investigator’s report.

The investigator then called Simplicity. “During our conversation, the customer service representative for Simplicity indicated that the manufacturer is aware of some issues with drop sides of this model crib. He said that all cases of which [the company] is aware have involved improper assembly of the drop side by the consumer,” the report said.

Then, in February 2004, a mother complained about a more serious drop-rail issue: separation from the crib. Julie Heath, who was living with her husband at the Ft. Stewart, Ga., Army base, reported to the CPSC that an hour after she put her 5-month-old daughter into the crib, she came into the nursery and found that one end of the drop rail had come loose. She said she also contacted Simplicity.

“I called the company, and they said it was no big deal,” Heath said in an interview. “They said there were no problems with it. I thought it was scary and wondered if there were any kids who were hurt that they weren’t telling us about.”

Heath said she ultimately got rid of the crib and instructed her husband to put it into a trash bin in separate pieces. “I see them [Simplicity cribs] a lot at yard sales on the base,” she explained. “I was worried if we just left it out that someone would pick it up and some baby would die.”

Nancy Cowles, executive director of Kids In Danger, a child-product safety advocacy agency, is calling for congressional hearings to look into the delayed recall. She asks: “Was it because the CPSC has no power and the company was able to stall?”

Let’s find out. Much has been written lately about the the CPSC, which seems to be seriously understaffed, underfunded, and unable to perform its mandate to protect consumers, particularly with the enormous influx of goods from other countries.

In the meantime, if you have a Simplicity/Graco crib, check to see if it’s part of the recall.

(Via DaddyTypes.)

Posted by MommaSteph.