Graco In Record Safety Settlement

Graco Children's Products Inc. has agreed to pay a record $4 million to settle charges that it belatedly reported problems with car seats, high chairs, strollers and other products that resulted in hundreds of injuries and at least six deaths.

The company also is recalling 1.2 million Graco Toddler Beds sold nationwide from 1994 to 2001. The beds are linked to scores of injuries, including more than a dozen broken bones, caused when children's limbs were trapped between the slats in the bed's guard rails or footboards.

"The fix the company has come up with," Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairman Hal Stratton tells The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler, "is a mesh that goes over the end rails and end board. This prevents the child's limb from going through the slats and getting caught."

Graco will provide the fix to consumers.

Until you get one, Stratton advises, take the side rails off, or simply don't let your child sleep in the bed.

As for the settlement, Stratton says, "This is an omnibus penalty for a number of violations, for the failure to report consumer product safety hazards by Graco. It is by far the largest penalty every exacted here at the CPSC."

Under federal law, companies must immediately inform the commission after discovering any product defects that pose injury risks or violate federal safety standards. That time limit typically is interpreted as 24 hours.

But the safety agency said Graco and its subsidiary, Century Products, failed to immediately report defects in 16 different products sold from 1991 to 2002. Stratton could not say when his agency first learned of possible reporting violations.

In a statement, Graco denied knowingly violating CPSC reporting requirements. It noted the penalty "pertains to a time prior to Newell's acquisition" of Graco, when the company was under a different executive management team, and before implementation of systems "that will ensure that this will not occur moving forward."

The products — more than 12 million in all — included car seats, infant carriers, high chairs, strollers, swings and beds.

The products have been subject to seven recalls since 1997, including Tuesday's. The commission said it expects to announce two more Graco recalls soon.

The six deaths were linked to Graco Infant Swings, 7 million of which were recalled in April 2000 after reports that babies could fall out of the seat's leg openings or get trapped in them. More recently, 140,000 Graco Travel Lite Infant Swings were recalled in July after the company received 100 reports of children slipping out of faulty seat belts and sustaining injuries such as bloody lips, bumps and bruises.

Acquired by Rubbermaid in 1996, the Exton, Pa., company is now a subsidiary of Newell Rubbermaid Inc., formed in 1999.

Stratton credited the new ownership team with helping to bring the problems to light and cooperating with federal regulators.

The penalty more than doubles the previous high of $1.75 million paid in 2001 by baby products maker Cosco Inc. and sister company Safety 1st to settle charges of not reporting product defects.

Stratton added that, "The best thing to do before you buy any hand-me-down, or anything...in the secondary market, is to go to our Web site to see if the item has been recalled. There is a large secondary market, particularly for sleeping products for kids, and before anyone buys something like that used, they ought to go to our Web site and check it out and make sure it has not been recalled."