Evenflo Maestro Car Seats Recalled After They Fail "Consumer Reports" Crash Test :: Product Liability Law Blog

Evenflo Company, Inc., a leading maker of child and baby gear, is recalling over 18,000 Evenflo Maestro child car seats in the US and Canada after the safety seats failed a Consumer Reports crash test. During the simulated 30-mph frontal-impact crash test, Consumer Reports found that two of the seat units’ plastic shell cracked and their harness loosened. No injuries or deaths related to the safety issues have been reported to date.

Now, although Evenflo says that when it conducted tests to verify Consumer Reports’ findings no such product flaws developed, the manufacturer has voluntarily recalled 13,792 units in the US and 4,479 units in Canada. The units that were recalled in the US were made before April 10, 2010.

Owners can obtain a free repair kit to fix the safety issue. Evenflo will provide a metal reinforcement plate that will provide better support.

Our child injury lawyers cannot stress the importance of making sure that your child is seated in not just the right safety seat for his/her size, but also that the car seat is free from defects that could cause it to malfunction during a car crash. It is essential that your son or daughter is properly secured at all times or the likelihood of serious injury or death during a traffic collision goes up.

According to University of Alabama at Birmingham professor Martha Bidez, Ph.D., US car safety polices for child passengers are among the weakest in the developed world. Despite the fact that car crashes continue to be the number one cause of death for US kids, ages 3 to 14, Bidez, an advocate for better US child protection standards,says that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration still refuses to adopt mandatory, stringent crash testing of child restraints. She also contends that the US is falling behind other countries when it comes to protecting child passengers. Meantime, South America has just adopted a child-restraint-testing program as part of its Latin NCAP (New Car Assessment Program). Australia and Europe have used child dummies in rear seats during crash tests a number of years.

Lax U.S. standards for rear-seat restraints put kids at risk, UAB expert says, UAB Media Relations

Evenflo Maestro Car Seat Recalled After Failing Consumer Reports Crash Test, PR Newswire/Consumer Reports

Evenflo Initiates Voluntary Safety Recall of Certain Combination Booster Seats, Evenflo, October 15, 2010

Related Web Resources:

Car Safety Seats: Information for Families for 2010, Healthy Children