The Recall Roundup for December is not very merry, especially if you’re in the market for electronic devices. Here’s a collection of appliances and devices that could cause overheating and discomfort or actual property damage. [More]
safety
Graco Recalls 4.7 Million Strollers To Prevent Amputations Of Tiny Fingertips
By 11.20.14
Graco and Century strollers with a sliding fold-lock hinge have been on the market since 2000, but they are potentially dangerous. The Consumer Product Safety Commission knows of eleven cases where children have caught their tiny fingers in the hinge. In ten of those cases, their fingertips were amputated or partially amputated. Graco has announced a recall, and will send a repair kit to stroller owners. [More]
A Call To Only Flip Off The Google Car With One Hand While Driving
By 11.5.14
We at Consumerist would like to take a moment to discuss something really important, flipping off the Google car safely: As seen in a tweet from @chrisjoonior (via @dhinkel), a driver has apparently succeeded in appearing in a Google Maps image after following the Google Car around for 20 minutes, flipping not one, but two birds. One hand on the wheel, people. That’s the least we can ask. [More]
October Recall Roundup: Let’s Review The Difference Between Tables And Chairs
By 10.30.14
In the Recall Roundup for October, some American consumers aren’t clear on how tables work, an appliance that’s supposed to kill bedbugs tries to do so by burning your house down, and a Halloween flashlight can overheat and melt in a terrifying way. Here are the consumer items recalled in the last month. [More]
Evenflo Agrees To Recall 202,000 Rear-Facing Infant Car Seats Over Tricky Buckle
By 10.24.14
Earlier this year, both Graco and Evenflo recalled almost six million car seats, all told, due to a safety buckle that regulators said could be tricky to open in the case of an emergency, and hamper attempts to get kids out of the car safely. And now, despite pushing back against a recall for additional rear-facing infant seats that use the same buckle, but that the companies argued don’t pose the same risk, Evenflo says it’s agreed to recall 202,000 more car seats. [More]
NHTSA Urges Owners Of Vehicles With Defective Airbags To Get Them Fixed, Even Though No Parts Are Available
By 10.21.14
Federal safety regulators are asking millions of vehicle owners to immediately fix their defective airbags, but it may do little to actually remedy the problem. With more than 14 million cars equipped with faulty Takata airbags, car manufacturers say they don’t have enough replacement parts on hand, meaning consumers consumers will have to wait and decide for themselves whether they want to keep driving affected vehicles. [More]
A Bad Idea Gets Even Worse When Lit Candle In Car Sparks Fire At Gas Station
By 10.9.14
Riding around in a car with an open flame is a bad idea all on its own: Any unexpected movements or sharp turns and that candle you lit for ambiance or use when your interior lights are out is going to go flying. Flying fire is bad, but it’s perhaps an even worse idea to have a flickering flame when your car is sitting still at the gas station. And yes, someone has definitely done this. [More]
Should Uber Be Responsible If A Driver Attacks A Passenger?
By 10.8.14
When you think about things that could go wrong while paying an amateur cabdriver to drive you around, there aren’t a lot of possibilities. Maybe there could be a car crash, you could be bitten by a spider in the car, or the driver might grope you. One problem you may not have anticipated: the driver hitting you with a hammer. [More]
Hey Kids, Let’s Not Trick-Or-Treat In This Completely Black Bodysuit
By 9.30.14
If there’s one problem with kids, it’s that cars can easily see them and avoid hitting them, especially at night. Wait. That’s wrong. Kids are small and easily overlooked when crossing streets, and never more so than when cloaked completely in black on a dark Halloween night. [More]
Woman Pulled Over For Drunk Driving Admits She Was Trying To Find Pizza Online
By 9.30.14
We as a society are trying so hard to fight distracted driving by warning about the dangers of using your phone while you’re behind the wheel — but it seems we have to expand the message from “Don’t text/use social media/email” while driving to also include, “Don’t try to order pizza online while you maneuver a huge hunk of metal through the world.” And don’t drink and drive on top of that (or at all). [More]
September Recall Roundup – Toppling Televisions And Lead-Painted Sunglasses
By 9.25.14
In the Recall Roundup for September, smoke alarms fail to go off, kids’ sunglasses are decorated with Disney characters rendered in lead paint, and a cooking thermometer adds a little something extra that you didn’t want to your food. [More]
Woman Breaks Car Windshield With A Tire Iron To Rescue Child Left Inside
By 9.22.14
While reports of concerned strangers breaking into hot cars to rescue children trapped inside aren’t always what they seem, that didn’t stop one woman from breaking a car’s windshield with a tire iron to save a one-year-old child who’d reportedly been left in there for 40 minutes. [More]
August Recall Roundup – Beware Of Toppling Bar Stools
By 8.26.14
In the Recall Roundup for August, dangerous beanbag chairs and overheating heaters could lurk around every corner, and there could be a defective car in your garage right now. Don’t be scared, though. The CPSC is here to protect us all from toppling bar stools and overheating night lights. [More]
Only 1 Out 12 Small Cars Gets “Good” Rating In New Crash Test Results
By 7.31.14
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (the place that crashes cars into walls for science) recently ran a dozen popular small cars, including the Chevy Volt, Ford C-Max Hybrid, Mini Cooper Countryman, and the Mazda 5, through its “small overlap” front crash test, where only the front corner of the vehicle is involved in a collision. While several of the tiny cars had okay results, only one earned an overall “good” rating from the IIHS. [More]
Leaving Your Child In A Hot Car: “If You Think It Cannot Happen To You, You’re Wrong”
By 7.30.14
By this point in the summer, we’ve written more than a few times — unfortunately — about children who have died after being left in closed cars on hot days. While some cases point to parents deliberately leaving their children behind, the reason we keep writing about the dangers of doing so is because the reality is that it can happen to anyone. [More]
FAA Halts All U.S. Flights To Israel For 24 Hours Due To Missile Concerns
By 7.22.14
The FAA has just issued an order prohibiting U.S. air carriers from flying into Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport for the next 24 hours. [More]
Report: Shoppers Smash Jeep’s Windows To Free Children Crying Inside Hot Car
By 7.15.14
UPDATE: Readers have pointed to a new report about what went down in that parking lot, one that says that the mother had accidentally locked her kids in the car after bringing them into a postal store with her, then putting them in the car to leave. The shoppers were helping her free them, other witnesses reportedly said. [More]
Father Of 3 Films Himself In Hot Car On 90-Degree Day To Show How Dangerous It Is
By 7.15.14
This summer has been marked with too many tragic deaths already after parents have left their children in hot, locked cars. We’ll say it over and over that it’s extremely dangerous, and you should never leave your children or any living thing in the car for even the briefest time. But one father of three went the extra step to show exactly how awful it feels by filming himself sitting in a locked car on a 90-degree day. [More]
