to think that if you kid sticks his/her fingers in the pushchair hinge...

[VulpusinaWilfsuit]

...it isn't actually Maclaren's fault?

The same is true of a food blender, lawnmower and hairdyer, many of which are used, um, near children. The trick is to keep their fingers OUT.

Jeez. How illiterate a post was that? Just before you all say it. Go ahead and throw the stale bread rolls for the content though

yy

Americans are thick though ain't they?

[sweeping generalisation]

I agree Vulpusina.
If my child trapped his fingers in the car door I wouldn't expect them to recall the car.

it does sort of beg the question why the children were anywhere near the folding mechanism.

I was watching the news and was thinking the same thing. It is clearly a hinge - a closing hinge is not meant to have fingers in it - parent should be watching - if you think about how many people have one and have no bad experiences compared with the few that do shouldnt you just think, well, bad luck.

i did wonder about this(and said so to dh) so will lurk and see

Completely agree.

DS2 caught his fingers in a door recently (no fingers lost) shall I sue the entire building industry because they will insist on putting doors in houses?

Yes I thought that - there can't be a pushchair in existence that wouldn't give your fingers a good excruciating crunch given half a chance.

Yes I said the same thing to dh just now, citing car doors as an example

There is a MNetter on another related thread whose child did just this and lost part of his finger.

So is it just because the Americans are more litigious that they recalled them there, or were their pushchair batches especially vicious?

"Americans are thick though ain't they?"

The spokesperson on the news said (more or less) this! He said that there were relatively few Maclarens around in the US but that they had had a worryingly high number of finger incidents. Whereas in Europe there were many more Maclarens in circulation and almost no finger amputations. This was his explanation for why they didn't feel the need to issue a guard for European Maclarens. Not because they are any different or safer but because they are, er, not being operated by Americans.

Make of that what you will.

Best of all on the BBC TC breakfast show thing the pushchair demonstrater brought in an old manky techno, folded it okay but didn't fold the hood up - it looked so awful!!!

Anyway completely agree with you, the instructions say "keep children clear of moving parts" or something similar. Perhaps US parents don't read???

I got rather pissed off at the woman on the news who said, 'we did think of it as just an accident but now we've seen the recall we are wondering if it was preventable...'

By which she meant 'whether I can sue the arse of Maclaren for huge amounts of money'.

Or maybe it's that Maclarens are Americanist?

does anyone else remember those hilarious Watchdog programmes in the 80s where they would insert a carrot into some unlikely household device, exert approximately 12004psi of pressure and attempt to snap said carrot into fragments.

Cue watserface turning to camera and saying with soulful scottish intensity "It's a potential deathtrap."

Well according to your programme, it's a potential coleslaw maker anyway.

I'm wary about this story.

Fifteen injuries in the US resulting in twelve amputations.

Since when?

And why, if the U.K pushchairs are exempt, are they? Do they have less guillotine-like hinges or are the lawyers thinking that UK toddlers with missing fingers won't make a fuss.

Lynn Faulds-Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood.

Married to John Stapleton. It was like Night of the Long Faces, their wedding.

If parents in the US are having a product recalled because incorrect usage can hurt kids, why don't they start with guns rather than buggies - think more kids there hurt themselves worse with those.

They should also beware of garden chairs, I know a professor who lost half a finger to one of those. "Do not operate with absent mind" warning evidently needed

Ninks Maclaren have said the European market is much much bigger than their US one (which I believe) yet there have been fewer incidences of injuries reported in Europe compared to the US which I also believe.

Here are some extracts from their statement which made me lol (slightly):

"We wish to reassure our customers that they should continue to use their existing Maclaren buggies since they are safe when opened and closed correctly," Maclaren Europe said in a statement.

"There are a lower number of similar reported incidents amongst the considerably higher number of Maclaren buggies sold in Europe. If a buggy is folded or unfolded in line with our operating instructions the risk of injury is non-existent."

The company was backed today by British trading standards officials, who said that since there had only been one recorded accident in the UK involving a Maclaren buggy, the product was considered to conform to safety standards.

Infact two people on MN have report that this has happened to their children on this thread. Interestingly BBC also request details on same thread.

As much as I agree that its a common sense thing to keep kids out of the way when folding/unfolding pushchairs and nothing untoward has happened to any of mine in 6 years of using a techno I think the lack of finger slicing incidences in the UK and Europe is simply because they are not being counted and recorded not because we are oh so much more intelligent.

Yes, trading standards will only know about cases that have come to their attention, obviously, and it's likely some parents have not reported problems to the council or company.

Dunno, I'm on the fence here - a product sold to be used for small children should avoid any obvious safety problems such as trapping little fingers. But equally you'd have to be quite careless not to realise hinges and fingers don't mix.

No offence to anyone whose child has caught their finger too, am sure it's only luck that means ds has avoided that fate. Which is why manufacturers should be careful in designing their products.

I'm getting splinters from this fence I'm sitting on...