URGENT INFO: Graco Delays Recall Of Millions Of Defective Car Seats, Feds Investigating.
The federal agency in charge of keeping motorists save on US roads is investigating whether child car seat manufacturer Graco delayed and recalling millions of defective car seat.
The National Highways Traffic Safety Administration announced Monday it had opened a timeliness query into the handling and reporting of a safety defect that made it difficult or impossible for parents to unlatched children from their car seat. Some parents reported calling 911 or cutting straps with scissors to free their children.
Graco and NHTSA repeatedly clashed over the necessity of a recall for the seats, and the latest announcement underscores the ongoing tension between the regulator and manufacturer, owned by parent company Newell Rubbermaid.
The company first recalled 3.8 million seats because of the defect in February 2014, then added 400,000 more in March. Graco resisted NHTSA’s call for more recalls until July, when it relented and recalled 1.9 million more seats with defective buckles. Collectively, the 6.1 million seats comprise the largest recall of children’s car seats in US history. Now NHTSA wants to know why seats weren’t recalled sooner.
“There is no excuse for delaying a recall to address any safety-related defect,” said NHTSA Deputy administrator David Freidman. “If Graco delayed in protecting children and infants from this defect, we will hold them accountable.”
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