CPSC Confirms Another Death from Toppled Ikea Dressers. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a report confirming that another child died due to an Ikea dresser that tipped over onto the child. The death, which occurred in 2011, is the seventh linked to the recalled dresser. The tragic incident involved a 2-year-old boy in […]
CPSC Confirms Another Death from Toppled Ikea Dressers. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a report confirming that another child died due to an Ikea dresser that tipped over onto the child. The death, which occurred in 2011, is the seventh linked to the recalled dresser. The tragic incident involved a 2-year-old boy in Woodbridge, Virginia. He was killed when the three-drawer dresser from Ikea’s Malm line tipped over.
The Malm line of low-cost Ikea dressers, which has been popular since they were released in 2002, has been associated with three other deaths. In 2014, a 2-year-old boy died due to a tipped Malm dresser.
News of the seventh death prompted the CPSC to once again warn of dangers associated with the recalled dressers. “Consumers should immediately stop using any recalled chest and dresser that is not properly anchored to the wall and place it into an area that children cannot access,” CPSC said.
Parker Waichman LLP has long been dedicated to consumer advocacy. The firm has decades of experience representing clients in personal injury lawsuits involving defective and dangerous products.
Ikea recalled 29 million dressers in June. At the time, the company and the CPSC said the dressers were associated with six deaths and dozens of injuries. Specifically, the dressers can lead to injury or death if they are not anchored to the wall. CPSC chairman called the recalled Ikea dressers “simply too dangerous”. He said consumers should either remove them from their homes or secure them to the walls to prevent them from toppling over.
In its June recall notice, Ikea states “The recalled chests and dressers are unstable if they are not properly anchored to the wall, posing a tip-over and entrapment hazard that can result in death or injuries to children.” According to CPSC, some 8 million Malm dressers and another 21 million children’s and adult’s chests and dressers are affected by the recall. The recall affected 6.6 million chests in Canada.
The CPSC states, “Consumers should immediately stop using any recalled chest and dresser that is not properly anchored to the wall and place it into an area that children cannot access.”
Two toddlers died due to tipped-over Ikea dressers in 2014. In response to these Ikea dresser deaths, the Swedish furniture company launched a repair program in July 2015. The program offered consumers a free wall-anchoring kit for chests and dressers to be secured to the wall.
Other fatalities from Ikea dressers include a 20-month-old girl in 1989, a 2½ year-old boy in 2002 and a 3-year-old girl in 2007. Deaths involved the GUTE 4-drawer chest, the RAKKE 5-drawer chest and the KURS 3-drawer chest.
In February 2016, a 22-month old boy in Minnesota was killed when a six-drawer Malm dresser fell on top of him. The deaths involved Ikea dressers that were not anchored to the wall, Law 360 reports. In addition to the fatalities, Ikea received 41 reports of Malm dressers tipping over. The CPSC reported 17 injuries to children, who ranged in age from 19 months to 10 years.
Ikea says the recalled chests and dressers “do not meet the performance requirements of the U.S. voluntary industry standard,”
A wrongful death lawsuit was filed by the parents of a toddler who died due to a tipped Ikea dresser. The suit, filed in Philadelphia, alleges that Ikea knowingly sold unstable dressers. According to the lawsuit, Ikea dressers allegedly do not comply with furniture industry safety standards for stability. The complaint states that in June 2014, a 3-drawer Malm tipped over and pinned the toddler. His father removed the dresser and his mother performed CPR before the boy was taken to the hospital. After four days of ventilation, he was taken off life support. The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages for medical expenses, funeral expenses, their son’s pain and suffering, and the family’s emotional distress.
This is the second lawsuit of its kind to be filed over recalled Ikea dressers. Another lawsuit was filed on behalf of a mother whose 2-year-old son died; he became pinned under a toppled Ikea dresser in 2014.
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