It’s the talk of Twitter: Toy giant Fisher-Price is recalling more than 10 million trikes, toys and high chairs due to safety concerns.
It’s not too often that I have to worry about mass recalls, but my daughter actually owns one of the toddler trikes that Fisher-Price is recalling.
According to news reports, seven million Fisher-Price Trikes and Tough Trikes toddler tricycles are being recalled because kids have sustained injuries from them. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says it is aware of 10 reports of children being hurt on the plastic riding toys. Six of them required medical attention.
The recalled trikes feature popular children’s characters, such as Dora the Explorer and Barbie. My daughter has the Barbie bike. We got it for her a few years ago and she loved it. She’s too big to fit on it now, but for a while there she practically lived on that thing. She rode it all over the neighborhood, pushing it and herself with her legs like a red-eyed tree frog because she couldn’t reach the pedals.
Over time she got trike savvy and figured out that she could go twice as fast using the pedals as she could making jumping-like motions with bent knees. But, here’s the thing about my daughter and this recall: The reason Fisher-Price is asking that consumers return the trikes is because they feature a plastic ignition key that sticks out near the front of the vehicle. According to reports, children can sit on or fall on the protruding plastic piece and get seriously hurt. Apparently, some kids experienced genital bleeding after falling on the trike’s ignition key.
Ironically, one of the main reasons my child loved the trike so much was because it featured a protruding plastic ignition key. She loved pretending that she was just like mommy and could turn on her trike the same way I did with our car. I can’t remember a time when she didn’t smile after cranking the little plastic nob and then racing off like a bat out of you know where.
Since the recall was made public, thousands of parents have taken to the Internet to rant about Fisher-Price’s “incompetent” product testers, and how the powers that be must have been on a mental vacation when they greenlighted the trikes.
If my kid got hurt on the ignition key I suppose I would be equally upset, but I only have fond memories of that trike.
I should mention that in addition to the trikes, Fisher-Price is also recalling more than one million Healthy Care, Easy Clean and Close to Me High Chairs because the pegs on the back of the high chairs could cut kids.
Other recalled items include:
*Fisher-Price Baby Playzone Crawl & Cruise Playground toys
*Baby Playzone Crawl & Slide Arcade toys
*Baby Gymtastics Play Wall toys
*Ocean Wonders Kick & Crawl Aquarium toys
*1-2-3 Tetherball toys and Bat & Score Goal toys
*Fisher-Price Little People Wheelies Stand ‘n Play Rampway toys
If you own any of the aforementioned products, Fisher–Price is offering free repairs or a replacement.
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