Personal Injury Law

South Carolina Infant Death Prompts Recall of 1.7M Summer Infant Baby Monitors

The deaths of two infants last year has led the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Summer Infant Inc. to recall 1.7 million video baby monitors with electrical cords. Both babies died in strangulation accidents involving the cords. One of the child deaths occurred in Conway, South Carolina to a 6-month-old boy.

Our South Carolina products liability lawyers want to remind you that if your son or daughter was injured because of a defective or dangerous product, you may have grounds for a personal injury case. Even if the product did not malfunction or doesn?t have a design defect, if your child still got hurt or died because of the product, you still may have sufficient cause for seeking damages.

According to the CPSC, there have been seven infant strangulation accidents linked to baby monitor cords since 2004. In addition to the baby who died in South Carolina, another baby, a 10-month old Washington DC girl, was strangled in her crib because of her Summer Infant monitor?s electrical cord last year. Also recently, a 20-month-boy was almost strangled when the cord of his Summer Infant monitor ended up around his neck.

The CPSC and Summer Infant are recalling the monitors so that a new product label and instructions can be included with them. Parents and caregivers have been warned to make sure that the video baby monitor is placed more than three feet away from a child?s crib, playpen, or bed. Over 40 different models are included in the recall.

Per the CPSC, you can prevent babies and young children from strangling in monitor cords by:

? Making sure your child cannot reach the cord.
? Keeping the cord more than three feet from any part of the baby?s sleep environment.
? As your baby grows, checking regularly to make sure that the cord continues to remain out of reach.

The failure to provide the proper operating instructions or warnings can be grounds for a South Carolina products liability lawsuit if injuries or death results.

Death Prompts Baby Monitor Recall, ABC News, February 11, 2011

Children Can Strangle in Baby Monitor Cords, CPSC (PDF)

Full post as published by North Carolina Injury Lawyer Blog on February 14, 2011 (boomark / email).