Product RecallWhat:

• Evenflo Embrace™ Infant Car Seat/Carriers Units:

• About 450,000When:

• May 10, 2007

Why: • When used as an infant carrier, the handle can unexpectedly release, causing the seat to rotate forward. When this happens, an infant inside the carrier can fall to the ground and suffer serious injuries.

Reference: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07186.html

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Management Issues Recognize of problem:

• The affected cars seats and carries have model numbers beginning with 317, 320, 397, 398, 548, 549, 550, 556, 597, 598 or 599. The statement comes after Evenflo received 679 reports of handles unpredictably releasing. Evenflo reported 160 injuries to children including a skull fracture, two concussions, cuts, scrapes and bruises.

• Even after the defect was fixed, it took another year—and another 250 dumps—before the CPSC and Evenflo got around to actually telling almost half a million parents that their car seats might split their kids’ melons open.

Speed of response to problem:• The fact that models made before April 8, 2006 but sold from Dec. 2004 to

Sep. 2006 are affected means the faulty design persisted for at least two years. But it also shows that Evenflo changed or fixed the design over a year ago. Which means they had to put the fix into the design/testing/production pipeline months before that.

Responsibility:• Evenflo started sending out a notice to all registered owners of the car seats

and carriers and will send a free repair kit to strengthen the handle latch.

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Impact of Recall Legal consequences:

• I didn’t find any lawsuits against Evenflo due to their malfunction products. • Millions of baby car seats that were sold since 2001 have been recalled by their

manufacturers because of design flaws, including weak shells, base/shell separation, and defective harness systems.

Reputation:• In addition to the baby car seat recall, many other baby seats for infants are believed to

have safety issues. Often problems are identified months or even years before a formal recall launched.

• Evenflo seems pretty quick about spotting and a defect, but they also made a calculation about the risk and the cost; rather than upset their system, they decided to make and sell another 250,000 defective car seats, and to keep letting unsuspecting parents use them for two years.

Sales:• Department and juvenile products stores nationwide sold the car/seat/carriers from

December 2004 through September 2006 for between $70 and $100 when sold alone and between $140 and $200 when sold with a compatible stroller.

Remedy:• Consumers should not use the handle until the repair kit has been installed. The product

continues to be used as a car seat when secured in a vehicle.

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References Daddy Types• http://daddytypes.com/2007/05/11/

congratulations_youre_our_679th_faller_evenflo_recalls_concussion-prone_car_seats.php

CBS Evening News• http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/10/fyi/main2787314.shtml

CNN Money • http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/10/news/companies/evenflo/index.htm

Defective Baby Car Seats• http://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/Defective_Baby_Car_Seats

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07186.html

Baby Products• http://babyproducts.about.com/b/2007/05/10/evenflo-embrace-infant-car-seat-recalled.htm

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