Design is Dangerous

            It is an innate concern of parents to want to provide a safe home for their children. Infants are incapable of protecting themselves. In the past the mother carried the infant with her, keeping it close for safety. But in our modern world we encourage infants to sleep on there own, often down the hallway in a room of their own. There are plenty of studies that show that starting an infant on an independent sleeping schedule will make transitioning and separation from the parent much easier but it provides us with another obstacle for protection.

            This separate room must be strategically designed to provide comfort and tranquility at night while being inspirational and bright during the daytime, both for the infant and the parent. However, what is most important is SAFETY!! Parents take into consideration many details when designing their children's room. They decide on a paint color and shop for the best furniture they can get. When purchasing these items most parents assume that items designed for use in children's rooms are safe, have been well tested and will perform properly. This leaves the consumer with mostly aesthetic concerns when making their choice.
            The false sense of safety and quality of children's product has proven to be deadly. Lets take a look at the main item of any infant/toddler room; the crib.

            Looks pretty innocent right? Simple, sturdy, and something that could fit into any décor. The wood comes in a variety of stains for further customization. It is on wheels so that changing locations of the crib is simple, requiring only one person rather than two or three. Like many other cribs the mattress support system is adjustable so as the child grows and is able to stand in the crib, the bed can be lowered to eliminate the ability of crawling over the side. All of these things are positive design elements, the consumer sees a safe addition to their child's room. However, behind this pleasant design lurks the danger of death. The front side of this crib is designed to lower. You lift with one hand, push in the bottom with your knee and the side drops about six inches. This allows for easier access to the crib and placing the baby on the mattress is actually possible for someone right around five feet tall. This characteristic of this crib is what has made it so popular. The drop front crib design is carried by many manufacturers carry it. But this design has a tragic manufacturing flaw. The plastic guide and brace at the bottom of the front side malfunction. They break and allow the bottom of the side to be pushed away from the mattress. This creates a deadly gap, an infant can fall into this area, and be trapped, suffocating, being strangled, falling to the floor. Thousands of reports of injuries and sadly a significant number of deaths have been caused by this defect. This news report tells the story of a little boy who lost his life to this deadly design.

              The solution to this tragic flaw is recalls. It is responsibility of the manufacturer to take responsibility for any failures their products have made. But it is the job of the designer, to test their designs, anticipating the failures before they are put out on the market. Designers should not simply send specs to a manufacturer for mass production without having that model tested rigorously. This may be difficult and demanding requirement for the designers but it is necessary to prevent horrific injuries to consumers. The malfunction of the plastic brace on so many cribs is something that should have been anticipated. The wear of a crib can be duplicated, thus the issue would have been discovered. I don't think it is too much to ask of designers, to take control of their designs. They have a moral obligation to those that they design for, an obligation to make their world a better place, not one that risks lives.

When the above crib was reported to have defects the company responded quickly with recalls and repair kits for the affected customers. Here are the official recall notices and news reports from one manufacturers experience with having a design defect.
Bassettbaby Recalls to Repair Drop-Side Cribs Due to Entrapment, Suffocation and Fall Hazards

http://www.bassettbaby.com/consumer/recalls.asp

http://www.newsinferno.com/defective-products/bassettbaby-recalls-90000-cribs/