IKEA Recalls Child Safety Gates Following Injuries
IKEA issued recall for child safety gates and safety gate extensions following reports of child injury.
Details of the IKEA Recall
According to reports, the child safety gates recall was announced on Thursday by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) – the federal regulator states the gates can open unexpectedly, posing a falling hazard to children and others.
The recall involves IKEA PATRULL, PATRULL FAST and PATRULL KLÄMMA safety gates and safety gate extensions. The gates and gate extensions are white and made of beech wood or steel and plastic.
The pressure-mounted gates open both inward and outward. IKEA stated that the locking mechanisms can open unexpectedly
IKEA has received 55 reports of incidents worldwide, including 10 injuries that resulted in two concussions. Four of the incidents were reported in the U.S.
The items in question were sold at IKEA stores for about 10 to 60 dollars per unit. The best thing for consumers to do in this situation is return the products immediately for a full refund.
Child Safety Gate Injury Statistics
- In 2008, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) received a total of 2,200 injury reports involving a child safety stair gate.
- There were two reported deaths connected to child safety stair gates between 2004 and 2006, and one death reported between 2003 and 2005.
- While there are no federally mandated regulations for child safety gates in the U.S., the American Society for Testing and Materials has developed voluntary standards for expansion gates and expandable enclosures.
- These standards focus primarily upon height, size of openings, spacing at the bottom of the gate, upper edge configurations, and label warnings.
- A stair gate can be defective if it is easily knocked down or removed by a child. In addition, the mounting hardware in a stair gate can break or become dismantled in defective products.
- A defective stair gate poses an extremely hazardous fall risk to a child, with many possible injuries or even death. In addition to a fall risk, defective stair gates in which hardware or other small parts become detached also present a choking hazard to infants.
