Making America Safe for the Children
The toy company Fisher-Price is recalling 11 million items, 7 million of which are Fisher-Price Trikes and Tough Trikes toddler tricycles. The company is being praised by the Consumer Product Safety Commission for its actions. There are reports that ten kids have been hurt, with six requiring medical attention. Ten. Not 10,000, but ten. I don't like seeing kids get hurt. I like kids. I have kids. Heck, I was a kid. But ten? Apparently these vehicles, according to the commission, have a protruding plastic ignition key near the seat that children can bump into or sit on or fall on, leading to injuries that have included genital bleeding. But ten? I'm guessing more than ten kids hurt themselves each year with plastic protractors. Well, at least the parents of these little victims can look forward to free health care, and all of us can look forward to getting these tiny deathtraps off the...well, off the playroom floor.
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May '10
Re: Making America Safe for the Children
Objection! First Kenneth is ranting about gay sex education for second graders and now Pat is talking about tricycles and genital bleeding.
So next thing is Google is going to start serving obscene ads in the right hand margin and then pretty soon the FBI will be on Rob's doorstep to shut down Ricochet.
I sure hope those backup servers in Ankara are ready-to-go Claire!
Re: Making America Safe for the Children
I have always wondered about these massive recalls because of a few serious incidents, too, Pat. No one wants kids to be hurt. I sure don't, and there have been many recalls of items that we have around the house, including strangling cribs, poisonous trains, choking dolls, digit-capitating strollers, and impaling tricycles. I often look at these toys and think, for example, "well, if I pinched off my baby's finger while I was trying to fold up the stroller, wouldn't the real dope be me, not the stroller, for not keeping my baby/toddler away from a folding object with hinges?
Is it too simplistic on my part to blame it on lawyers/the legal system? What I mean is that Fisher-Price must believe that it saves more money by recalling gazillions of items than by trying to fight lawsuits, or at least suffer from the publicity from the lawsuits, or something. Is that it? Or is it all part of our panicky, overreacting culture?
Re: Making America Safe for the Children
Much to my dismay, I was unable to find the YouTube clip of the old "Consumer Probe" skit on SNL with Dan Aykroyd and Candice Bergen that your post reminded me of. Here's the best part:
May '10
Re: Making America Safe for the Children
And what do you suppose are the costs associated with recalling 11 million Trikes and Tough Trikes just so that Junior doesn't get a boo-boo? Not to mention the lawsuits that I'm sure have already been filed.
I'm sorry but I'm at the point where I'm ready to say, yes, I want to get rid of roads & cops.
And what's the point of calling it a Tough Trike if you can't get injured on it? Will they rename it the Weenie Cycle now?
May '10
Re: Making America Safe for the Children
It saddens me to no end that the only Tonka trucks my nephews can play with are made of plastic.
By the way, I recently saw the older nephew bop his little brother on the head with a plastic toy. Judging by the tears, I'd say NERF is well situated for a monopoly in future years.
Re: Making America Safe for the Children
Ursula, it's probably a bit of all those things and more. Beyond this specific recall, however, I've always been fascinated by the notion of risk, and how we accept more of it in some areas of our lives and less of it in others. The common refrain is, "If we can save one life, isn't it worth it?" Well, maybe. But, as George Will likes to point out, if that were the overriding principle, we'd outlaw left turns, the single most dangerous traffic maneuver. Or cars in general. And if 55mph is safe, wouldn't 45 be safer? Regulation may be replacing common sense, and, by the way, accidents do happen.
Edited on Sep 30, 2010 at 1:24pmSep '10
Re: Making America Safe for the Children
I agree, Pat. America can definitely absord ten injured kids, and come out stronger in the end.
May '10
Re: Making America Safe for the Children
I think the market works fine in these cases. The word goes out in the uptight mother circuit and toys can be effectively blacklisted without any government intervention at all.
Our family has begun using some god-awful sunscreen product that is sticky and doesn't rub in because my wife discovered through word-of-mouth on the Interwebs that the traditional product is in some way fundamentally ineffective or cancerous or something.
Tell a couple of playgroups in Brentwood, Edina and Darien about the genital bleeding issue (no, I can't just let that go) and sales will dry up just fine without the help of the government, thank you very much.
Jul '10
Re: Making America Safe for the Children
Gee, I spent much of my childhood wandering around the Sierra Nevada mountains barefoot, in cut-off jeans, with a .22 rifle, climbing sheer rock faces amongst bears, rattlesnakes and mountain lions. And I came out un-scuffed.
Thank God I wasn't exposed to genital-bruising plastic toys.
Edited on Sep 30, 2010 at 1:43pmMay '10
Re: Making America Safe for the Children
Regulations and recalls just keep playing leap frog with each other, and the bar will never be high enough. Toys are sort of unique in that the legislatures keep guessing in front of themselves with standards, being "for the kids" and all. Seat belts took a while to become standard, and were only required once a significant number of cars had them to begin with. Custom and industry practice establish a norm, and that norm eventually becomes law. But toy regulations seem to anticipate the problem before it's even an established problem. When accidents happen, we recall, then regulate. Rinse. Repeat.
Additionally, since they're kids we don't like to think about negligence on their part since kids are supposed to be negligent. But if that's the case parents should pick up at least part of the responsibility, seeing as how a portion of the control is in their court; it shouldn't be all on the manufacturer. Reasonable parent standard?
Re: Making America Safe for the Children
Someone please remind me to leave all references to body parts out of my next post.
May '10
Re: Making America Safe for the Children
I think the term "genital bleeding" was worse than the comments arising from it.
But kids in this country have been worthless ever since the introduction of bike helmets. Which immediately transform any wearer into a complete dorkwad. Heck, I never wore one, and even had lawn darts. Which were awesome.
I am sadly prevented by youtube from posting a link to the MST3K lament about the banning of the Creepy Crawler kiln-fired figurines.
Aug '10
Re: Making America Safe for the Children
Until last month - when the test was canceled - I was a paid volunteer in a drug test being performed by Pfizer for a medicine that eliminates back pain. It turns out that it's a miracle drug, and made me feel twenty-years younger. It effectively eliminated all my muscle and joint pain, even from old injuries; and in the thirteen months I used it, there were no side effects. It works directly at the nerve sites, not in the brain. So there's no impairment, as with other analgesics.
There were over 24,000 people in the test, and a dozen reported flareups of arthritis. The FDA canceled the entire test - because of new guidelines structured by the Prince-of-Darkness-in-Chief's minions.
They announced that henceforth they won't approve any drug that has any side effects that might harm anyone.
Jul '10
Re: Making America Safe for the Children
I have some Lefty friends who gave their five-year-old son a pink plastic tea set so he wouldn't grow up with a chauvinist mindset.
Too bad we can't recall parents...
Re: Making America Safe for the Children
Do they have to refund the purchase price on a recall?
If so, I don't think you can blame lawyers for this decision. They are recalling 7,150,000 of them. They'd have to refund $25 each, plus the cost of the recall.
If there were 10 injured kids, each case would have to average almost $179 million to equal just the outlay on the refunds. No chance.
Something is fueling this recall decision, but it's not the fear of 10 lawsuits.
Edited on Sep 30, 2010 at 2:05pmMay '10
Re: Making America Safe for the Children
I wonder if some of these recalls aren't an attempt to get used products out of circulation, and get parents to purchase new ones. Trikes are very common at yard sales, and they are one of the few toys that can hold up pretty well and get passed on to siblings and friends. You used to be able to sell cribs, but models get recalled all the time. I'm willing to bet Fisher-Price will have a flashy new trike in stores just in time for the holidays.
Jun '10
Re: Making America Safe for the Children
Kenneth, Steven Ambrose in Undaunted Courage relates that Meriwether Lewis, age 7(!) would take his rifle, kick up the dogs, and head into the primordial forest of Virginia for days at a time, to no great consternation of his mother. But as I recall, he did have shoes.
Jul '10
Re: Making America Safe for the Children
Pilgrim
Kenneth, Steven Ambrose in Undaunted Courage relates that Meriwether Lewis, age 7(!) would take his rifle, kick up the dogs, and head into the primordial forest of Virginia for days at a time, to no great consternation of his mother. But as I recall, he did have shoes. · Sep 30 at 2:20pm
I didn't get the rifle until I was 9 (I bought it with money I extorted from deer hunters who had to pass through the gate on our land.)
As for the bare feet, my father, who associated shoelessness with his own Depression-era poverty, would often reprimand me - "Darnit, Kenneth, put some shoes on!" But I liked the feel of dirt between my toes, so I'd keep my shoes on until I was out of his sight, then hide them under a rock until I came back home.
May '10
Re: Making America Safe for the Children
In the great state of Minnesota, our Ever Vigilant Senator is the leader in the GWOT. This, of course, says nothing about the non-existent (chuckle) threat from swarthy young men cutting off heads of people who refuse to convert to a particular religion, no, friends, we mean the Global War on Toys. Here is a fine story on the subject, and here is another related commentary.
Strap on your walking helmets, tie the little darlings down in their strollers, and go amuse yourselves.
May '10
Re: Making America Safe for the Children
Tommy De Seno: Do they have to refund the purchase price on a recall?
If so, I don't think you can blame lawyers for this decision. They are recalling 7,150,000 of them. They'd have to refund $25 each, plus the cost of the recall.
Very few of these toys will actually be submitted for a recall, and they are not offering a refund, just a replacement for the "key" (in other words, a 5 cent piece of plastic). They will probably pay more for the required public announcement of the recall.
The recall is a way to wipe one's hands of further trouble. If you keep the trike or pass it on to a sibling, ignoring the recall, then any injury is your problem. And they (Fisher Price) get to look like good guys. The Marketing Department wants the whole thing to just go away, and the recall does that for them.
It's often little more than regulatory extortion. "Bow to our authority or we'll pound you with bad publicity."