Graco car seat recall up to 6.1m
Print Edition
GRACO Children’s Products is recalling 1.9 million infant car seats, bowing to demands from United States safety regulators, in what is now the largest seat recall in American history.
The recall, announced Tuesday, comes after a five-month spat between Graco and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Earlier this year, the firm recalled 4.2 million toddler seats because their harness buckles were prone to stick. But it resisted demands to recall the infant seats.
Seat buckles can get gummed up by food, making it harder to remove children, which the agency said increases the risk of injuries in emergencies.
Graco argued that infant seats are used differently, and in an emergency an adult can remove the whole seat rather than using the buckle.
When Graco announced the initial recall in February, the NHTSA sent the company a sternly worded letter questioning why the infant seats weren’t included. It said parents had filed complaints about buckles on the infant seats sticking.
The letter also accused the company of soft-pedaling the recall with “incomplete and misleading” documents that will be seen by consumers. The agency threatened civil penalties.
But Graco, a unit of Atlanta-based Newell Rubbermaid, said at the time that its rear-facing infant seats weren’t being recalled because infants don’t get food or drinks on their seats. It also agreed to send replacement buckles to owners of infant seats on request.
In a letter sent to the NHTSA on Friday, however, Graco said that further investigation had shown a “higher than typical level of difficulty” in unlatching the infant seat buckles.
Graco said Tuesday’s move, which took the recall to 6.1 million, came after months of sharing data with the NHTSA.
It said the recall was “in the best interest of consumers and underscores our shared commitment to child passenger safety.”
Graco will replace the buckles free of charge, it said.
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