Deaths prompt crib study

The consumer product Safety Commission has recalled almost 1.6 million drop-side cribs from Delta Enterprise of New York after the deaths of two infants. The news comes after previous crib recalls of a total of 1.6 million drop-side models made by Simplicity of Reading, Pa., and has prompted the CPSC to broadly review crib safety. Two children died in Simplicity cribs, the agency said.

Problems with the Delta cribs involve missing or nonfunctioning safety pegs for the side rail and malfunctioning spring pegs.

In one case, an 8-month-old child became trapped and strangled when the drop side of a reassembled Delta crib detached. The safety pegs that were provided had not been installed. If the drop side detaches, an infant can become trapped in the gap between the bed and the side rail. There have been two other entrapments and nine cases in which crib locks disengaged because of missing safety pegs.

After the first death, Delta recalled 985,000 cribs. They were made in Taiwan or Indonesia and were sold at major retailers such as Kmart, Wal-Mart, and Target.com from January 1995 through September 2007 for about $100.

The death of the second child also occurred when the drop side of the crib detached. After that death, 600,000 drop-side cribs were recalled. They were sold at major retailers from January 2000 through January 2007 for $33 to $200.

None of the recalled cribs are currently on store shelves, but some are available through secondhand sellers.