Graco has finally agreed to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's demand to recall about 1.9 million rear-facing infant seats for faulty buckles.
Graco is recalling about 1.9 million infant car seats, ending a five-month battle with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over faulty buckles that are difficult to unhook. The recall was announced Tuesday on the company's official website, with details of the models that are being called back.
Graco's latest recall is an expansion of the earlier one in February involving 4.2 million forward-facing child seats for toddlers. At the time, Graco refused NHTSA's call to add the 1.9 million rear-facing seats in its recall citing the seat's unique design, which detaches itself from its base in emergency situations. But the solution was not convincing enough for the safety regulators.
"[T]he hazards and risks involved in the delay of extricating a child from a rear-facing infant car seat in any emergency situation are significantly increased and rise to the level of unreasonable risk when the harness buckle is difficult to open or is stuck in a latched condition," NY Times quoted safety regulators as saying.
Graco finally agreed that the harness buckle used on infant car seats manufactured between July 2010 and May 2013 required a higher than usual effort to unlatch.
"Both N.H.T.S.A. and Graco investigated consumer concerns in an effort to address the issues with the buckles used on certain infant car seats. We are pleased to announce a solution that we believe is in the best interest of consumers and underscores our shared commitment to child passenger safety," Laurel Hurd, president of Graco Children's Products, said in a statement.
Graco is offering a free replacement to those affected in the recall and also to those who want to upgrade to a better design. The seat maker is dispatching the replacement buckles to customers who place an order at the company's official order site. Customers can check if their existing model is under recall by updating the seat's model name and date of manufacture, found at the bottom of the infant car seat carrier, on the company's replacement site.
The affected models in the current recall include the SnugRide, SnugRide Classic Connect (including Classic Connect 30 and 35), SnugRide 30, SnugRide 35, SnugRide Click Connect 40 and Aprica A30, according to NHTSA.
