The maker of Simplicity and Graco cribs on Friday recalled about 1 million of the beds after the deaths of at least two infants, including one in California.
"Don't take a chance at all," said Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission, which announced the voluntary recall by Reading, Pa.-based Simplicity Inc., one of the nation's largest crib manufacturers.
"If you are a parent or caregiver that has one of these cribs impacted by these recalls, your baby should not sleep in that crib tonight."
The recalled cribs, which were manufactured in China and sold at major retailers nationwide, feature a "drop-side" railing that can pull away from the mattress. Infants can become trapped in the resulting gap and suffocate.
The recall is the latest in a summer of worry for parents, who have seen name-brand toys, bibs and other childhood necessities removed from retail shelves because of safety concerns.
It's also yet another smudge on the reputation of Chinese-made goods.
The drop-side failures result from the hardware and crib design, which make it possible to install the drop-side incorrectly, the commission said. Installing the drop-side railing upside down greatly increases the risk of failure, although the commission said it was aware of two incidents that occurred when the drop-side was correctly installed.
The commission announced the recall after inquiries by the Chicago Tribune as part of a crib-safety investigation.
A 9-month-old and a 6-month-old died in cases where the drop-side railing was installed upside down, the commission said. The older infant was Liam Johns, who died in Citrus Heights, Calif., in April 2005, according to the boy's father, Chad Johns.
"The fact that the recall finally came through has lifted a lot of weight from our shoulders and given us closure," said Johns, who now lives in Roseville, Calif., with his wife, Nicola. "We wanted to make sure no other families suffer through the same situation that we did."
The family's attorney, Charles Kelly of San Francisco-based law firm Hersh & Hersh, said he alerted the commission about the problem more than two years ago and that the agency took too long to act.
"The crib is supposed to be the safe sanctuary for your baby and instead it turns into a deathtrap," Kelly said. The Johnses sued Simplicity and settled in June for an undisclosed amount, he said.
