Authorities in Pineville, Missouri, are saying that a baby bassinet that was not part of Simplicity Inc.’s recall of 1 million defective cribs, is as much a death trap as the recalled cribs. How do they know? Because a 4-month old girl died in one of those 4-in-one bassinets. Little Katelynn Marie Simon died Sept. 29 of “accident positional asphyxiation,” after she was caught between the rail of the bassinet and the mattress, according to an article in The Joplin Globe.
The article states local officials contacted the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) right away to make sure the bassinets are included in the recall list of defective products as well. These bassinets now join the long list of defective and dangerous children’s products that were made in China. The bassinets have a model number of 3112DOH6 with Winnie the Pooh decorations. CPSC or Simplicity have not yet recalled the product. Last month the company recalled 1 million cribs after reports of three infant deaths.
Simplicity already faces lawsuits and class action suits from consumers. But they should face steep fines too. According to watchdog Web site www.consumeraffairs.com, Simplicity seems to have had no regard for their consumers or the helpless infants who suffered severe injuries or death. An Illinois Attorney General’s Office investigator, who ordered one of Simplicity’s so-called repair kits, found that when it arrived in the mail, it just had a few plastic parts with no instructions and nothing else! Is this any way to treat a consumer who has unwittingly been given a death trap to place their precious children in?
What’s more, a Chicago Tribune investigation found that the company and CPSC knew for more than two years that the defective products could hurt and kill infants and toddlers, but they did nothing about it. Both the company and the agency should be held liable in the deaths of these children and others who could have been possibly injured because of these product defects. Simplicity should’ve in fact offered a complete refund on the crib, but all they could do was to mail out a haphazard package of plastic hardware with no instructions or no information of what to do with them.
The company should step up to the plate and be responsible for the products it put out in the market. This recall should’ve come two years ago. Shame on the CPSC as well for letting it slide and for allowing four little children to be killed by these death traps! This is a federal safety agency that is there for one purpose only – to safeguard public interests and safety. They are supposed to be on our side. But whose side are they really on?