North Carolina Product Liability Blog : North Carolina Product Liability Lawyer & Attorney : D. Hardison Wood : Toy Safety, Child Restraint, Car Seats

We have often discussed the need to utilize five point harnesses booster seats. Far too many children have been killed in car crashes when their child seat has failed them. The Kyle David Miller foundation, was set up in memory of such a young boy. His courageous family has gone on to start a website called www.hipmonkey. com where you can find 5 point harness car seat for your child, while supporting their foundation.

No matter where you purchase your next car seat, please do your research. And if you have a child getting ready to go into a booster, before automatically putting them in one of those booster seats that uses the car's seatbelt and no tether, please check out the five point harness boosters. We have heard over and over again, how easy it is once your child in in a booster seat that uses the car's seat belt - because then he/she has the ability to buckle and unbuckle themselves...Except there is of course the other end of the story that we hear, when after a car crash, a child who was utilizing the car's seat belt in conjuction with one of those booster seats, was ejected form the vehicle. Why? Because the car's seat belt could not restrain the child during the crash. Car seat belts are not made for small children. 

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Simplicity (which as we have mentioned before on our blog - is no longer in business) has recalled about 600,000 drop side cribs. The drop side, when it comes off its tracks can pose a serious risk of injury by entrapment, suffocation, and strangulation to infants. The cribs according to the CPSC's website were sold at:

AAFES, of Dallas, Texas
Babies“R”Us, of Wayne, N.J.
Burlington Coat Factory/Baby Depot, of Burlington, N.J.
K’s Merchandise (out of business)
Meijer Distribution Inc., of Grand Rapids, Mich.
Nebraska Furniture Mart, of Omaha, Neb.
ShopKo, of Green Bay, Wis.
Target, of Minneapolis, Minn.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc, of Bentonville, Ark.

They were sold between January 2005 through August 2008. For additional information on this recall please visit the CPSC website.

if at anytime our child is a victim of a products defect it is important to bring it to the CPSC's attention.

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All vehicles have federal safety standards they must meet. It turns out that Chrysler has to recall 6,636 2008-2009 Doge Challengers which have automatic transmissions and the "keyless go" option. Why? According to edmunds.com inside line it may

fail to meet a federal safety standard for theft prevention which could result in accidental rollaway.

It appears that when the stop/start button can be pressed and in postions other than Park. That would to me,  definitely seem to pose a problem.

According to the National HighwayTraffic Saftey Administration, this safety standard exists to reduce crashes due to theft or rollaway vehicles.

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It seems lately we have been hearing more and more form victims of car fires. GM has announced that they are recalling 42,408 Saturn Vues. The recall is due to

a potential leak of power steering fluid that could cause a fire

Apparently this recall affects model year vehicles from 2008-2009 with 6 cylinders.

The recall covers a group of Saturn Vues from the 2008 and 2009 model years that are equipped with six-cylinder engines. GM said dealers would inspect and tighten the nut and check the fluid level as needed.

The report says there have been no reported injuries from this product defect, which brings up another very important point. Should you ever have a product defect you should always report it. Even if there are no injuries, it is important the defects are reported so that investigations can take place, and if a product proves to be unsafe, the public is made aware. If you need to report a defect, the link to the Office of Defects Investigation is:http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/index.cfm

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Looks like some folks are finally putting their thinking caps on and coming up with solutions. 

``The Federal Reserve and the Treasury are realizing that we need a more comprehensive solution,'' Schumer, a Democrat who chairs the congressional Joint Economic Committee, told reporters in Washington today. ``I've been talking to them about it.''

Schumer urged forming an agency to inject funds into financial companies in exchange for equity stakes and pledges to rewrite mortgages and make them more affordable. His remarks indicate momentum is building for some wider plan after the Fed and Treasury's takeovers of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and American International Group Inc. this month.

Schumer advocated a Great Depression-era Reconstruction Finance Corp. model, different from the Resolution Trust Corp.- type plan others have floated. Another RTC, which was a 1990s agency that sold devalued assets in the Savings and Loan Crisis, would ``simply transfer excessive risk to the U.S. government without addressing the plight of homeowners,'' he said.

Full story here.  These ideas are all good, and I believe the Senator is right that we need to do more than simply transfer the risk to taxpayers.  But I don't think this is going to be a silver bullet, by any stretch.  Seems to me that encouraging savings, encouraging capital investment in productive capacity, and encouraging some ethical reforms are all going to need to be addressed as well.  But all in all, this is good news.  People aren't standing with their finger in the wind, they are trying to figure out a way to solve the problem.  Good sign.

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Apocalypse now means the "end times".  The Greek though is more simplistic.  Apo (meaning lift up or part) and kalypsis (in this context meaning veil).  Apocalypse for ancients was really a lifting of the veil, a clearing of the view, for the those privileged enough to witness it.  In that sense, with a focus on the term privileged, this bailout of AIG is apocalyptic.  The veil has been lifted, "my friends".

Yesterday I blogged about the Lehman bankruptcy, and the Lehman bankruptcy only.  Good news, by the way, for Lehman IB workers reported in yesterday's FT here.  So some job losses are turned around, which is something to celebrate.

Today though, I'm waking up to the news that the Federal Reserve has bailed out AIG.  It appears the Fed and Treasury were convinced that an AIG bankruptcy would trigger systemic financial meltdown.

Right now, the Fed's language is extremely vague.  So I don't have all that much to say.  On the flip though are the concerns I raise, and they are serious concerns that anyone should be worried about.

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190,000 soccer goals were recalled after a child's death.

About 190,000 MacGregor and Mitre folding soccer goals were recalled Tuesday, after the death of a young child.

The CPSC said the netting had gaps that were 20 square inches apart. Ideally they should be less than 17 square inches or greater than 28 sqaure inches in order to prevent a child becoming trapped or possible strangulation.

Parents and caregivers are advised to stop using the nets, which can be returned to Regent Sports in exchange for a free, safe replacement. For more information, call 877-516-9707

This is yet another in a long line of recently recalled products whereby the safety standards for gaps and spaces may have been ignored thereby causing a serious child safety issue. If your child has been adversely affected by a product, and you feel our firm may be able to assist you, please do not hesitate to contact us.

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General Motors (GM) announced last week that they were settling a class action lawsuit involving approximately 90,000 Saturn vehicles resulting from the VTi transmissions which seem to fail prematurely.

Owners of the aforementioned vehicles will be given a percentage of their expenses, based on vehicle mileage when the transmission failed and whether the car was purchased new or used. Read the Story

GM had touted that this transmission was more efficient that others. What we have been seeing lately in our practice is with the "more efficient" cars - there appears to be a bending of the federal standards for vehicles in this attempt to become more efficient. And that seems to be leading to many products liability issues due to injuries from these vehicles. 

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Everyone is totally freaking out, or totally under-appreciating (take your pick) what is happening on Wall St. right now.  Before I give my $0.02, I'd like to point out to our fellow attorney readers that Chris Nichols has some interesting thoughts on this matter as well.  You can access his discussion here.  More on the flip.

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