Evenflo Co. issued a voluntary safety recall Friday of 1 million Discovery infant car seats after tests showed that the seat could potentially become separated from its base in high-impact side collisions.
The recall affects Discovery Infant Car Seat Models 390, 391, 534 and 552, made between April 2005 and Jan. 29, 2008.
"Evenflo has taken the appropriate action today in recalling the Discovery child safety seat," said Nicole Nason, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "Testing conducted by NHTSA and Evenflo has confirmed that these seats represent a potential safety risk to children in high-impact side collisions."
Rob Matteucci, Evenflo's chief executive officer, said the Discovery seat models have performed well to protect infants in side collisions, with no reports of any serious injuries or deaths since they were introduced. However, he said the company wants to take further steps to protect the safety of children.
Evenflo is providing owners of the seat models with a free supplemental dual-hook fastener to ensure that the seat remains attached in such collisions. Evenflo said consumers should continue to use their Discovery infant car seat and that it is not necessary to return the seats to retailers.
The privately held company, based in suburban Dayton, said it is also taking steps to improve future Discovery seat models. The updated seats will be available in the second quarter of 2008.
To order the fastener, owners of Discovery 390, 391, 534, 552 models should call Evenflo at 1-800-356-2229 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. EST or visit http://www.evenflo.com/Discovery. No shipping costs will be incurred, and orders will arrive in about three to four weeks, the company said.
Labels: Car Seats, Children, Evenflo, Recall
# posted by
Brian Vanderhoff @ 1:41 PM
