Hooker issues voluntary recall of bunk beds
By Jeff Linville -- Furniture Today, December 23, 2007
Martinsville, Va. — Hooker Furniture has issued a voluntary recall of bunk beds from four of its collections sold over the past two years.
In cooperation with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Hooker will repair 1,300 beds in its Albany Park, Swedish Accents, Mariner's Landing and Chelsea's Place collections.
The beds, imported from Malaysia and Vietnam, include twin-over-twin, twin-over-full and loft systems. Retailing for about $1,000, they were sold between August 2005 and August 2007.
CPSC standards say that children's furniture must be designed to prevent entrapment and strangulation. A gap between surfaces must either be less than 3½ inches (too narrow for a child's head to fit through) or greater than nine inches (wide enough for a child to get free).
Barney Peach, Hooker vice president of quality and process improvement, said the beds conformed to gap regulations except under the mattress, where the space between slats was eight inches. Sometimes parents don't buy the right size of mattress for the bed, Peach said, which can leave space between the mattress and side rails where a child can fall through.
No incidents or injuries have been reported, he said.
Hooker is directing consumers to suspend use of the beds and contact the store of purchase to schedule a free in-home repair. The company is providing retailers with extra slats to reduce the gaps to less than 3½ inches.
Another spot where the company needed to make an adjustment was the length of the side rail on the ladder side of the bed. The guard rail was 75½ inches long, said Peach, which is a quarter of an inch short of the CPSC requirement of 75¾ inches.
Hooker has corrected the bunk beds for current and future shipments.
After a Hooker employee realized that the beds didn't conform, the company began sending samples to Diversified Testing Labs in Burlington, N.C., for inspection. From now on, Peach said, "Even if we feel sure the bed is okay, it's better to get it certified."
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Hooker recalls 1,300 imported bunk beds
Dec 14, 2007
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