Ikea Dresser Recalls News Update 2017: Another Two-Year-Old Boy in California Killed
Another case of an Ikea dresser causing death has been reported this week. According to reports, a two-year-old boy in California has been killed by the dresser, which was already recalled in June last year. The child was the eighth to be killed by the said furniture.
The family of the latest victim, Jozef Dudek, said that the unstable three-drawer Ikea dresser fell on top of the boy while he was napping alone in his bedroom. "It fell over on top of him," said the family lawyer, Atty. Daniel J. Mann.
According to Mann, the accident happened sometime in May, while the boy was unsupervised by his parents. The dresser, which was located near his bed and was part of a recall last year, fell over and crushed him to death. "When the father entered the room of the child who had been put down for a nap, he found him underneath the dresser," said the family lawyer.
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Back in 2016, Swedish furniture company Ikea recalled the three-drawer Malm and other models of its chests and dressers due to safety issues, with some claiming that the furniture could be unstable if not properly anchored to a wall. When the company announced the recall, Ikea urged those who had already bought the Ikea chests and drawers to either anchor them to a wall or return them for a refund.
Although Ikea claims that it has publicized the recall online, the company has been widely criticized for the ineffectiveness of the announcement in alerting consumers. According to lawyer Alan Feldman, consumer products must be stable on their own and not require additional anchoring just to be safe. "The vast majority of consumers do not secure these dressers to the wall and it has long been our view that furniture stability should be built into a dresser and anchoring should be a secondary method of securing furniture," he said.
