Fisher-price And Maclaren - A Tale Of Two Safety Scares

By Author: Adam Lee
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This week's news coverage of a safety alert concerning baby toys is a stark reminder of the dangers of faulty products.

For 40 UK families the safety warning will bring back painful memories of how their children were seriously injured by poorly-designed push buggies †cases in which Claims Direct’s No Win No Fee solicitors helped the families win much-deserved compensation.

Fisher-Price is the company issuing the latest alert; identifying 165,090 baby gym products and 6,107 Little People Wheelies Stand 'n' Play Rampways on its danger list; all thought to contain parts which present a choking hazard to playful tots.

It's not just toys which are causing alarm †UK parents are advised to immediately stop using 72,763 Fisher Price high chairs.

It is feared that children could sustain injuries if they fall on the pegs found on the back legs of the high chairs.

Free repair kits and replacement vouchers have been made available to consumers owning the at-risk goods though Fisher Price has stopped short of taking out product-recall ...
... adverts.

All of which might sound depressingly familiar to some UK parents who received compensation in May 2010. On that occasion Maclaren, rather than Fisher Price, were the company involved and push buggies, rather than high chairs, the products at fault.

The timetable detailing the course of events which lead to the parents involved in the Maclaren case winning compensation is detailed below.

November 2009 †Maclaren USA recalled 1 million of its pushchairs in the USA due to injuries relating to the product. Reports of a dozen children losing fingers when they placed them near the hinge while the buggy was being unfolded caused the alert.

Reacting to the 'amputations', Maclaren (just like Fisher-Price has done) made repair kits available. But Maclaren (unlike Fisher-Price) originally insisted that models sold in the UK were unaffected.

It was a claim which did not go unchallenged by contributors to parents' forum Mumsnet.co.uk. Many mums asked why kids would be near a buggy while it was being folded or unfolded? But many others, like EldonAve, asked: "How can they get away without recalling or repairing them in the UK then? The buggies are exactly the same!"

December 2009 †By now these parents had a powerful ally in the form of Russell Jones and Walker, (Claims Direct is a trading style of Russell Jones and Walker).

Richard Langton, a partner at the firm, said: "Infants whose fingers are at risk of being fractured, crushed, or amputated in the UK deserve the same protection as those in America.

Why are new buggies not being sold now with the same protective hinge covers and warning labels which are being provided in America?"

Maclaren's stock defence was to say that the product adhered to European safety standards †implying that American safety standards were higher.

It was an argument that would hold little water with worried UK parents.

February 2010 †It is reported that the Consumer Focus Body taskforce is seeking to identify how many parents have had children injured in incidents relating to faulty hinge mechanisms on push buggies.

They don't have to look too hard as parents such as Ian Harmer, whose 13-month-old daughter, Olivia, lost part of her finger in 2008, came forward.

Mr Harmer contacted Maclaren to point out the injury and plead that safety improvements be urgently made. The company and its insurer's response? To put pressure on him to drop a compensation claim. That he didn't was to prove costly for Maclaren.
May 2010 †Russell Jones and Walker help win compensation for 40 UK families whose children sustained serious finger injuries while the pushchairs were being put up.

It emerged that the children were aged between one and eight years old when hurt. Just as in the USA, many had the last part of their finger joint amputated.

But that's where the similarity ends †in the USA the product was recalled, in the UK it hasn't.

Compensation was secured for the parents and children within three months of Russell Jones - Walker being handed the case. It must seem like a bittersweet victory but Ian Harmer, referring to the compensation verdict, said: "This is a good day for children who suffered through no fault of their own."

And what of the parents of these children who still wait in vain for a product recall?

Richard Langton of Russell Jones - Walker said: "What all my clients want is that no one else suffers needless injury."
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