Parents all across the country use many products to help them take care of their children, and Massachusetts residents are no exception. From bottles to baby formula and high chairs to safety restraints, we entrust the well-being of our children to dozens of different manufacturers. We feel safe in this practice because we assume most dangerous products are recalled, so we know what products are and are not safe. However, because this system relies mostly on self-reporting, product recalls may not be as reliable as you think.
A safety advocacy group recently analyzed major recalls on children’s products in the last five years. The group aptly called Kids in Danger, made some interesting discoveries about the relationships between a number of serious injuries and the time of recalling. These findings revealed the companies that issued the most product recalls:
- Target with 24 recalls after 30 injuries and 106 reported incidents.
- Fisher-Price with 19 recalls after 130 injuries and 828 incidents.
- Dorel Juvenile Group with 11 recalls after 10 injuries and 808 incidents.
- IKEA with 11 recalls after 12 injuries and 55 incidents.
- Pottery Barn Kids with 11 recalls after 17 injuries and 86 incidents.
- Walmart with 11 recalls after two injuries and six incidents.
What is most interesting about these data is that Target issued more recalls than Fisher-Price despite having barely one-eighth of the reported incidents and only about one-quarter of the injuries. This indicates that some Fisher-Price products caused many more injuries before being recalled than Target products.
These findings illustrate how important it is to investigate any injury by a product. Even if the product has not been recalled, it could still be a defective product, and if you are injured by a defective product, you could be entitled to compensation.
Source: WTSP, “Which sellers have the most kids’ product recalls?” April 20, 2015
