Drop-side Crib Recall: Proposed Ban Could Finally Eliminate The Silent Killer

On the morning of December 12, 1997, Michele Witte entered her ten-month-old sons bedroom to wake him

. Instead she found his body still and breathless. At some point between changing his diaper at around 1 a.m. and that morning, his neck had become stuck in a gap between the side rail and the headboard of his cribthe result of just one loose screw. Despite having the baby monitor on and her bedrooms close proximity to his room, she had heard nothing during those few fateful hours. According to the coroner, the asphyxiation occurred over a time span of just 15 seconds. For the next thirteen years, Wittealong with numerous defective product lawyers, child injury lawyers, child advocate lawyers, and aggrieved parentswould advocate for safer standards and the elimination of the defective product that had tragically impacted so many lives: the drop-side crib.

For many then, the July 14th proposal by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to ban drop-side cribs and similar defective products came as a victory. After reports to the agency of 32 fatalities resulting from suffocation and strangulation caused by drop-side crib detachments over the last decade, as well as of 14 fatalities resulting from infants becoming trapped in the cribs, the ban should become effective by the years end. In addition to prohibiting the manufacture and sale of drop-side cribs, new crib-construction requirements would also take effect: increased mattress support, more durable hardware, and higher quality wood.

Throughout the last 5 years, there have been 12 recalls of drop-side cribs nationwide, with Pottery Barn Kids July 14th recall of 82,000 units of the defective product being the most recent. According to one child injury lawyer, in most cases infants and toddlers became trapped in a gap in the crib, causing them to suffocate. The creation of such gaps, another defective product lawyer explains, can be attributed to faulty hardware, and the failure of unstable hardware or the snapping of poor quality wooden slats due to continuous use. A child advocate lawyer points out that insufficient mattress support has also led to similar accidents.

As parents heard of these recalls over the years, explains a defective product lawyer, they became wary of all cribs, instead opting to have their babies sleep along side them in bed. News of this trend alarmed child advocate lawyers because the American Academy of Pediatrics discourages parents from having their babies sleep in the same bed with them. To avoid both the dangers associated with drop-side cribs and allowing babies to sleep in the same bed as their parents, one child injury lawyer has advocated the use of stationary cribs with no movable parts.

While the ban on drop-side cribs, as well as its concomitant regulations for all cribs, will mandate the manufacture and the sale of new, safer cribs, tens of thousands of potentially dangerous old cribs will remain in homes throughout the nationa fact that concerns parents, safety advocates, and child injury lawyers.

by: James Ballidis

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