Personal Injury Claims and Dangerous Infant Products
Personal injury attorneys in Naperville can help when your child gets hurt as a result of using a defective infant product. At Woodruff Johnson & Evans Law Offices, we take child injury claims very seriously and can discuss your options with you today if your child suffered a severe injury. Child injuries often happen when parents do not know that a product they are using has been recalled because of a safety issue. Some of the most recent infant products to be subject to a safety recall by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) are a series of Britax car seats. According to a recent article in USA Today, the CPSC recalled more than 71,000 car seats due to the risk of serious injury to infant passengers.
Child Car Seats Recalled Due to Serious Risk of Personal Injury
Just like adults, children and infants can sustain serious personal injuries. All too often, these injuries result from the use of a dangerous product. What is the problem with the recalled Britax car seats? According to the article and the CPSC recall notice, “the car seat carry handle can crack and break, allowing the seat to fall unexpectedly, posing a risk of injury to the infant.” In other words, parents can be transporting their infants from the car to the house, and the handle of the carrier can unexpectedly crack. When this happens, the baby suffers a drastic fall to the ground.
Thus far, Britax knows of at least 74 incidents in which the handles of these car seats developed fractures, cracks, and/or broke while they were in use. In one case, an infant suffered a head injury after the carrier fell and hit the ground. It is important to note, however, that the recall does not imply that the car seat is not safe for use solely in the car. According to Britax’s website, the defective handle “does not affect the safety performance of the seat when used in a motor vehicle,” and consumers can “continue to use their car seat when secured in a vehicle or on a stroller.” Consumers should not, however, lift or carry the seat by its handle before having a “remedy kit installed.”
Identifying Recalled Models
Which models are affected? Parents who currently have a Britax B-Safe 35 or B-Safe 35 Elite model car seat manufactured between October 2014 and July 2015 should contact the company immediately to learn more about having the product repaired. In the meantime, as we noted, the seat should not be lifted or carried when an infant is inside. The seats were sold primarily at Amazon.com, Diapers.com, Babies R Us, buybuy BABY, and Target.
News of this recall comes around the same time as another Britax child product recall. The company has issued a recall notice for some of its stroller models due to concerns about the materials on the arm bar. In short, the materials may pose a choking hazard to children riding in the strollers.
If your child suffered a serious injury while using a recalled product, you should learn more about filing a personal injury lawsuit. An experienced Naperville personal injury lawyer can speak with you today. Contact Woodruff Johnson & Evans Law Offices to learn more about how we can help.