THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 12, 1995 TAG: 9512120280
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
The Consumer Product Safety Commission and Justice Department filed two lawsuits Monday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis seeking a $2.5 million civil penalty, the maximum under the Consumer Product Safety Act.
The law requires companies to report immediately defects in their products that could pose a ``substantial risk'' of injury to the public.
The commission said Cosco knew of at least 25 instances of young children getting stuck in openings in the frames of the model T22 and T23 beds but didn't report them until after a N.Y. state toddler strangled in December 1991 while trying to climb out of bed, feet-first through the footboard. Some of the complaints dated back to February 1991, the agency said.
Cosco made a full report on the hazards in March 1992, three months after the consumer protection agency requested it.
About 110,000 of the red or white tubular steel beds, some with guardrails, were sold nationwide from December 1990 through December 1991 as ``transition beds'' for children ages 2 to 4.
Cosco also is accused of failing to notify the agency of similar incidents involving guardrails sold with the beds and separately as accessories. A companion complaint alleges that Cosco received dozens of complaints about the guardrails in 1992 and 1993 - even as it worked with CPSC to recall the beds - but failed to report them until the agency asked.
The beds were recalled in April 1992, the guardrails in June 1994.
In a statement, Cosco said it regretted the CPSC action because the beds have been redesigned. It said the 15-month-old child who died was sleeping in a bed that had been wrongly converted into a crib, and that it warned parents that the beds were for use only by toddlers older than age 2.
Cosco did not address the allegation that it hid consumer complaints.
KEYWORDS: RECALL BEDS by CNB