of Barbados issued a statement highlighting what it called the "highly unusual" circumstances surrounding the death of a child, who died in one of company's cribs.

The death by strangulation of a 6-month-old child and reports of 10 other injuries led  Dorel Asia to recall approximately 635,000 drop-side and non-drop-side cribs. The voluntary recall, announced by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, follows several other recalls of drop-side cribs totaling more than 4 million units in the past two years. 

According to CPSC the child from Cedar Rapids, IA, died after becoming entrapped and strangling in a crib after the drop side hardware broke. The crib had continued to be used after the parents tried to repair the drop side themselves.

Dorel recall statement
In its statement, Dorel pointed out the extenuating circumstances of the infant’s death. “Although tragic, it is important for consumers to understand that the circumstances of this fatality were highly unusual. The CPSC investigator’s synopsis of the incident, referring to the six month old infant death, states: ‘He had fallen out of his crib a month earlier. The crib was known to be broken before that when it was used with an older child. After this incident, they put "duct tape" on the crib to hold it together. Both parents were arrested for "child endangerment with death" and the father had additional drug charges’.”

In addition to the child's death, CPSC and Dorel Asia of Barbados, received reports of 31 drop side incidents. In six of those incidents, children were entrapped between the drop side and crib mattress. Three children suffered from bruises as a result of the entrapment. CPSC and Dorel Asia also received reports of 36 incidents of slat breakage, including seven reports of bruises and scratches to children and two reports of entrapment that resulted in no injury.

Dorel Asia, based in Barbados, sourced its products from manufacturing plants in China and Vietnam.
 
The CPSC said consumers should immediately stop using the recalled cribs until replacement kits are obtained and installed from Dorel Asia.

Read CPSC's recall notice.

Read Dorel's recall clarification statement.