Maclaren Strollers Maiming Kids

[Mulboyne]

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Yomiuri: Infants getting fingers stuck in strollers
Over the past 10 years, more than 20 children have got fingers trapped in the hinges of folding baby strollers while adults have been folding them. A particular problem has been with strollers made by British company Maclaren, with cases in the United States of children having fingers severed being reported. As of Monday, four domestic reports of accidents involving Maclaren strollers had been made to the Consumer Affairs Agency. In one case, a 3-year-old girl from Chiba Prefecture lost a fingernail. While all the injuries have been minor, Nomura Trading Co.--the domestic importer of Maclaren strollers--has been distributing hinge covers free in an attempt to prevent further accidents. According to the agency, strollers made by other companies also have caused injuries, with 21 reports of accidents made to consumer affairs centers over the past 10 years. Three years ago, a 20-month-old boy and a 9-month-old girl--both from Tokyo--almost had fingers severed, with their digits staying attached by strands of skin. "There's a high risk of a serious accident occurring," an agency spokesman said. "We ask people to be careful and keep children away from strollers when folding them open or closed"...more...

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Last week, Consumer Affairs Minister Mizuho Fukushima said "I have heard that (the strollers) are popular in Japan as well. I would like to request that people refrain from using them." That seems to be an odd statement for a minister to make: if a product is unsafe then it should be banned. That's not to downplay the issue which is clearly important, especially since Maclaren has a large market share in Japan. However, other countries immediately began looking closely at all manufacturers because the design fault appears common to all "umbrella" strollers. The Yomiuri reports stops short of naming other brands but notes how the most serious accidents in Japan have involved non-Maclaren models.

[GuyJean]

Another major problem with these Mclarens; if you ax-swing the stroller over your infant's head when it's folded up, the wheels injure the child's ear..

Mclaren strollers are such a status symbol in Japan, I'm feeling pleasurable waves of schadenfreude.. Hey bitches! My ha-sen-en stroller can crush my kid's fingers too!

GJ

[Kanchou]

Oh come on, like it takes that much to amputate an infants fingers...

[Coligny]

Funny... I don't remember ever trying to fold any stroller with the baby still inside...

But then again I was seen as a strange father (albeit for a very short time only).

[Greji]

Funny... I don't remember ever trying to fold any stroller with the baby still inside...

So that's why my kids kept disappearing. I better check the closet when I get home....

[waruta]

Top Gear even mentioned it on their latest episode, seems like out of all the countries that McLaren sells the strollers in, only America is recalling all of them.

James May quipped: "No, no, there's a very good reason for that though, I think it's because British parents are more umm,....what's the word I'm looking for? ...Intelligent."

[xenomorph42]

Top Gear even mentioned it on their latest episode, seems like out of all the countries that McLaren sells the strollers in, only America is recalling all of them.

James May quipped: "No, no, there's a very good reason for that though, I think it's because British parents are more umm,....what's the word I'm looking for? ...Intelligent."

Yeah, if only the same sad thing could be said about their cuisine or lack thereof.

[waruta]

Too bad The Fat Duck is the best restaurant in the world, located in....the UK

[Kanchou]

Yeah, if only the same sad thing could be said about their cuisine or lack thereof.

When you consider that the population of the US is several times greater than the UK, it makes sense that there's a greater chance of stupid things being done, regardless of the average intelligence of the respective populations.

[waruta]

But why only the amputations in the US? The rest of the world seems to not have an issue with the McLaren Strollers...which is what I guess May was referring too. But then again those Top Gear guys are pretty anti-American after that roadtrip incident they had in the South....

[Kanchou]

There have only been 21 accounts reported in 10 years... That's for HOW many strollers in HOW many countries?

I would guess there's upwards of 10 times as many strollers in the US as the rest of the countries where such strollers are sold... and one might guess more low-class Americans can afford to buy such products compared to their economic counter-parts due to a varying number of reasons (such as country-specific pricing, income levels, and customer prudence...).

Which is to say that for every stroller sold to a dumbass in say, the UK or Japan, we might have 20 sold to a dumbass American. But that's not necessarily due to average intelligence levels of a population.