Dangerous Stork Craft drop-side cribs still in use, Richmond maker warns

OTTAWA – There could be over a million recalled drop-side cribs still in use in Canada despite two massive recalls in 2009 because so few parents have ordered repair kits, the B.C. manufacturer has confirmed.

Last November, Stork Craft Manufacturing Inc. announced a voluntary recall of 968,841 drop-side cribs in Canada following the suffocation deaths of four infants in the United States; plastic hardware can weaken or deform over time, allowing the drop-side to detach and creating a space between the drop-side and the mattress in which babies can become stuck.

This massive crib recall represented the largest in Canadian history, bumping Stork Craft’s January 2009 recall of another 494,000 drop-side cribs for a separate problem.

Together, the manufacturer, based in Richmond, has issued about 128,700 repair kits – 69,628 for the January recall and 58,806 for the November recall – representing a pickup rate of less than 10 per cent.