Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

Parents in the New York community of Maverick Park Slope, where the human-to-stroller ratio is about 2 to 1, are in a frenzy about this week’s Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recall of about a million single and double strollers made by Maclaren USA. The strollers are being recalled because of the risk of child fingertip amputation and laceration. At the time of the recall, Maclaren had received 15 reports of children placing their fingers in the stroller’s hinge mechanism, which resulted in 12 reports of fingertip amputations in the United States.

The CSPC is urging consumers with the strollers to immediately stop using them and contact Maclaren to receive a free repair kit designed to remedy the situation. News of the recall had parents in Maverick Park Slope reacting at light speed. The Maclaren stroller, it turns out, is by far the most popular stroller in the neighborhood.

“This is an alarmist neighborhood, so people are going to be anti-Maclaren until they fix the problem,” said Dara Kass, a mother of two, to the New York Times. She said she had received numerous calls from friends and family frantically warning her about the recall.

Kass says the stroller issue is just as big a health concern to her and her friends as the swine flu. But some residents said they thought the worries were overblown, adding they probably wouldn’t even register for the protective device to prevent amputation.

“You do wonder sometimes, are we being overly worried?” says Jessica Carey. “But having a baby, I know literally anything can go wrong.”

Maclaren USA can be reached at (877) 688-2326 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or online at www.maclaren.us/recall.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 10:10 am and is filed under product liability, recalled products. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.