Chrysler Group LLC Responds to NHTSA Recall Letter
Graco recalling nearly 3.8M child car seats
1. Graco recalling nearly 3.8M child car seats
DETROIT -- Graco
is recalling nearly 3.8 million car safety seats
because children can get trapped by
buckles that may not unlatch. But the company has drawn the ire of federal
safety regulators who say the recall should include another 1.8 million
rear-facing car seats designed for infants.
The recall covers 11 models sold from 2009 through 2013 by Graco Children's Products Inc. of
Atlanta. The
National Highway Transportation Safety Administration warned that the problem
could make it "difficult to remove the child
from the restraint, increasing the risk of injury in the event of a vehicle
crash, fire or other emergency."
See the recalled safety seat model numbers
But NHTSA also criticized Graco in a letter dated Tuesday, saying the
recall improperly excludes infant car
seats with the same buckles. Both the
company and NHTSA have received complaints about stuck buckles on the infant seats, the agency
said.
"Some of these consumers have had
no choice but to resort to the extreme measure of cutting the harness straps to
remove their child from the car seat," the NHTSA letter said.
The agency wants Graco to identify the total number of seats that potentially have the defect and
explain why it is pushing for the smaller recall.
Graco, a division of
Atlanta-based Newell Rubbermaid, told The Associated Press that its tests found
2. that food or beverages can make the harness buckles in the children's seats
sticky and harder to use over time. The
company will send replacement buckles
for free to owners who registered their
seats.
Owners who didn't register their seats
but want free replacement buckles can call
the company's consumer hotline at
800-345-4109 or visit its website.
Rear-facing infant seats aren't being recalled
because infants
don't get food or drinks on their seats,
Graco spokeswoman Ashley Mowrey said.
But Mowrey said Graco will send
replacement buckles to owners of rear-facing infant seats
upon request.
Mowrey said the company has issued
cleaning tips for the buckles, and began sending replacement buckles to owners
last summer. Graco is also sending instructions
for how to replace the buckles and posting a video on its website to show
parents how to replace them.
In documents sent to NHTSA, Graco estimated that less than 1 percent of
the seats involved in the recall have
had buckles that were stuck or difficult to unlatch.
Mowrey said there have been no
reported injuries due to the defect.
3. NHTSA, in documents filed last year,
said it received 80 complaints about the seats.
In one complaint from October of 2011,
a parent wrote that they tried to get a 20-month-old boy out of a My Ride seat,
but the center release button on the buckle couldn't be depressed. The parent
was able to loosen the straps from the rear of the seat enough to free the child.
"My biggest concern is that if this happens during an emergency,
where we need to get him out quickly, we won't be able to without cutting the
belt material," the parent wrote.
Two months before that, a family with
a Graco MyRide 65 car seat told NHTSA that Graco wouldn't replace a sticking buckle on their
car seat, but offered them $40 toward
a replacement seat.
NHTSA does not identify people who
file complaints to the agency, but it posts complaints on its website.
Due to
a high volume of traffic on the Graco Website, CBSNews.com is posting key information about the
recall from their web site:
