Following 12 reports of accidental finger amputation, stroller company Maclaren is recalling 1 million strollers. Every single Maclaren stroller sold since 1999 is included in the recall.
The safety concern arises over the side hinge that expands and contracts when the stroller is opened and closed. The company plans on sending safety covers to stroller owners.
There hasn’t been an official one but the CPSC is expected to make one tomorrow.
It’s important to make sure that children are a safe distance away from the stroller when you’re opening and closing it. And to, you know, stop opening or closing it if you hear a high-pitch screaming.
Want a stroller that’s cheaper and higher rated than a Maclaren, and hasn’t been recalled for finger amputation? Check out Consumer Reports latest stroller reviews and ratings (subscription required).
Stroller maker Maclaren to recall 1 million strollers on concerns children can cut fingers off [New York Daily News via Consumer Reports Safety Blog]
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Because, 11 is, you know, acceptable.
@BeyondtheTech:
Well, when you have only a 0.0011% chance of an accident, that’s really not too horrible. But good for them for fixing it.
@zarex42: It is when you’re that 0.0011%.
@ExtraCelestial: Yeah, it sucks, but going aggressively after things with extremely minuscule risks only makes sense from a PR standpoint, not a “reality” one.
@BeyondtheTech: 11 out of 1 million over 10 years is probably just above the number of people that fraudulently claim amputations for payouts.
The bigger question is why parents are letting their kids stick their fingers in the stollers while they are being closed.
as an owner of one of the strollers in this recall (a double stroller for my twins), i’m shocked it took 12 amputations for them to realize something’s amiss. i didn’t pay $400 for a finger amputator.
@dmolavi:
IANA engineer, but I’m pretty sure that just about anything with a folding hinge can be a finger amputator.
@YouDidWhatNow?: I am an engineer, and it depends on the design of the pinch point.
@dmolavi: You got ripped off. There must be plenty of do-it-yourself finger amputators available online for free (with parts costing perhaps $10).
@sleze69: you can actually make one at home with $8 kitchen scissors.
@The Porkchop Express:
Cigar slicer + heavy object.
@shepd: Just what I was thinking.
@dmolavi: Hey, for $400, it BETTER include a finger amputator.
Wait…no…
‘recall’ is a misnomer, no? They’re not actually recalling or replacing the strollers. They’re sending out 2 hinge covers to stores and those who filled out a registration card. They’re not taking responsibility for installing the covers, either. And stores are only getting enough so they can install them on their unsold inventory.
A pricey stroller is the equivalent of a mob enforcers with a pair of bolt cutters
Strollers like that are complete waste of money. We bought one for our first child–they are large and unwieldy and we eventually got tired of it. By the time we had our third child, we had gotten a simple folding umbrella stroller and use that all the time. It’s light and easy to store.
@halcyondays: Our MacLaren stroller is an umbrella stroller, just a nice one. It stores an ample bunch of stuff and is pretty darned lightweight. I can’t speak for the doubles, though, since we don’t have another kid.
@halcyondays: We got the Jeep 3-wheel (lock, unlock front wheel) one for our youngster from day one. We’re very outdoorsy anyway. We installed some bicycle head lights for nighttime use. We’ve taken it on hikes in the woods, down dirtbike trails, through streams, all around grassy parks, miles and miles all over Savannah city, and we like to take it to the flea markets, because the load capacity is very large. We’ve used it so much, the tires have lost most of their treads. Still solid as a rock, and we’ll be sad to see it go to yard sale soon, as the little one is outgrowing it.
Just don’t open or close it when the kids are playing with it, and don’t let kids play with it to begin with, put it where they can’t get to it.
Parents should take responsibility for they own kids when something happens, instead of trying to blame someone else.
This would be a great stroller for mobsters who are heavy into extortion and loan sharking.
Just another reason, why I’m near 30 and am in no rush to have kids. I need all my digits!
Just send some twist ties out to the customers. Worked for Toyota.
mashup: the Slap-Chop stroller!
Unbelieveable that there were 12 amputations! I do see a lot of these around. Considering the prices of these strollers and this is what the consumer gets. Never had any interest in owning a Maclaren mostly because of the price. The umbrella stroller I have was $39 on Amazon.
IlostmythumbsinastrolleraccidentsonowIcan’tusethespacebar.
I’ve got an infant son, but I was unfamiliar with Maclaren. Then I read the article and stumbled upon this blurb:
Maclaren – maker of the pricey British strollers ubiquitous at playgrounds and on sidewalks across the city…
Silly me. I just go with Consumer Reports. Oh, whaddaya know? 5 strollers are rated and higher and are significantly cheaper than a Maclaren model.
@Quake ‘n’ Shake: As a rule of thumb (or whatever you happen to have left) any high-price product will have a competitor which does the job adequately for considerably less money.
I heard they were going to sell off that line of strollers to The Martha Stewart Collection. Supposedly goes well with their lawnchairs that do the same thing for adults, too.
Maclaren’s site is down, way down, not just the recall page. Oops. I’ll have the little guy wear a mesh cutting glove in the meantime.
I love how this has also turned into a fine opportunity for people to bash the stroller itself, like people who pay a “high price” for a stroller deserve their child losing a finger? Bizarre…
as Alton Brown would like to say…
“it’s a multi-tasker”
How does one go about explaining a missing digit to a toddler? And why is the chance of such an injury not the first thing designers are instructed to avoid? I bet designers of glass bottles are alert to making sure no mouth cutting edges are left in the molding process, lighters should not be explosive, no ground glass in any of the baby food,…that kind of thing. This is like a bad Dan Akroyd children’s costume skit from the 70′s. “Saves on expensive 10 fingered gloves”
See?! Now I am glad that my wife insisted on the Bugaboo. Yah, it may have have been nine-hundred bucks, but at least the baby has all his fingers!
(when I told my dad how much the bugaboo cost, I expected him to tell me that I was nuts, instead he deadpanned “does that come with a DVD player?”).
the best finger amputation story i’ve heard involved a pinky ring and a flight of stairs. makes me think you can pull this off with just about anything.
“Want a stroller that’s cheaper and higher rated than a Maclaren, and hasn’t been recalled for finger amputation?” I’d be seriously surprised if such a thing existed: we’ve been through umpteen strollers and the only brands we trust now are MacLaren and Chariot. The rest either aren’t built as well are safety-conscious (ironically) or don’t have decent warranties. We live where cheaper strollers will rust easily, btw.
A collapsible stroller that has no pinch points. Is that possible? And why are parents collapsing their strollers with their kids inside?
@IfThenElvis:
It’s a new parental discipline tactic.
“SHUT UP JOHNNY or Mommy’s going to fold you in the stroller again!”
I am amazed at the number of recalls these days due to stupid consumer usage…what happened to the days of using common sense? I have a couple of strollers, including a Maclaren and I wouldn’t be folding it with my child touching it or with my fingers in any of the “pinch points”.
TWELVE finger amputations? But that would leave me with (-2) fingers!
It doesn’t say whose fingers were amputated, the mom’s or the brat’s?
People are joking about this, because the people who buy Maclarens think they are paying a premium for a safer stroller.
Whereas, a lot of people buy them because they are the ones to have. You can be in your nice suburbs paddling your precious snowflake around in a Graco, Safety 1st or a Chicco, now can you?
So, yes, people may enjoy the schaudenfraud of all those people paying extra for an (ultimately) unsafer stroller.
My 2 precious snowflakes in my suburb have done just fine with their Graco, thank you very much.
@jaya9581: They’re not replacing the strollers. They’re sending plastic hinge covers to stores and to anyone who filled out a registration card.
@FatLynn: That’s my thought exactly – the difference being being able to pinch your finger, or being able to REMOVE your finger.
@B: So now he has -6 fingers?
@pecan 3.14159265: I suggest looking at the G-Luxe from UPPAbaby. We love ours, as does our 9-month old. We’ve been using it with him since he was 3 months old. We bought it on the recommendation of the authors of Baby Bargains.
It’s very lightweight, has real rubber tires and a mesh cargo basket that holds a loaded diaper bag.
The best part? It cost all of $120, and should last him until he’s 40lbs.
IMHO, Maclaren and Bugaboo are ludicrously overpriced.
@pecan 3.14159265: Depends on the amount of crap you lug around. I find I very rarely need the diaper bag … I have a big purse (and it’s NOT A MOM PURSE, I REFUSE TO GIVE IN!) that will fit a diaper, travel wipes, burp cloth, and pacifier, and that takes us most everywhere we need to go. (I leave the full diaper bag in the car so I have it if needed, but rarely needed so far.) When we go on “outings,” usually I’m with my husband so one of us carries the baby, the other one carries the crap.
I do like my (Graco) stroller for the farmer’s market and for walking to and from the stores I can get to on foot from my house … I just stash the bags underneath and off we go. It does take up a buttload of space in the trunk of the car, though, if I’m taking it with me somewhere.
If you’re on a day-long outing, you definitely want a full diaper bag, and probably a more serious baby toting system. If you’re running errands or something, less can be more.
Also, the cats can sleep in the Graco, but they collapse the umbrella stroller when they try that.
@sharkd: Maclarens are a sixth of the price of Bugaboos. Sure not $20 or free with purchase from BRU but it’s hard to lump the two brands together.
@neega: Oue Maclaren was $135. and sounds a lot like the one sharkd mentioned. But we can dice carrots with ours! Definately worth the extra fifteen bucks.
@G.O.B.: Come on!: +5 Humorous
@G.O.B.: Come on!: Wins the thread. Two thumbs up (assuming they weren’t cut off too).
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): We see people lugging around those behemoth diaper bags, and we feel sorry for them. We had a tiny bag, too.
We had a great idea for when our munchkin was on formula–we bought smaller ziploc bags at the craft store, filled them with a measured amount of formula, wrote the measurement on the bag, say, “6 oz.” and stuck some in the diaper bag. This way, we didn’t have to carry extra bottles of mixed formula that would get cold, and we could always find a restaurant that would fill the bottle with (6 oz.) lukewarm water for us. Then, we would just pour in the powder, shake, and serve. Especially nice if our outings took longer than expected. We would, of course, have to keep cycling the powder in the bags so they would stay fresh.
@mariospants: I didn’t say rated higher – I said adequate.
@Skipweasel: I meant to reply to Quake ‘n’ Shake, your point is valid.
@pecan 3.14159265: Sure 11 fingers after his first use of the Maclaren Volo stroller!
@mariospants: Egads man or woman!! I don’t know what to tell you then.
@Taelech: +5 humor award
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!):
HEY! They stole my idea! I oughtta sue!
hahahahaha
Although I bet my idea probably ends up cheaper. Whenever they put things into “convenience packs” they usually “packs” the price up 4 or 5 times higher for our “convenience”.