After hundreds of accidents, stroller maker hoped Trump officials would stop a recall—and they did

Serious question: What the hell does the Trump administration have against babies?

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OK, it’s one thing to cut children’s health insurance and then their SNAP benefits. Yet we’ve never before dealt with someone who called putting toddlers in cages a “deterrence tactic,” nor someone who thought nothing of kidnapping small children from their parents and then subsequently losing them. 

All things considered, it should probably have come as no surprise that when a morally-bankrupt company refused a safety recall on a product that consistently harmed small children, Trump’s people immediately stepped in—to help that company continue to harm children.   

Between 2012 and 2018, there were nearly 100 injuries with the Britax Child Safety 3-wheeled BOB jogging strollers—caused by the front wheel flying off with no warning. Both children and adults were harmed, with injuries ranging from bleeding to smashed teeth, scraped faces, torn ligaments, and broken bones. One small kid bled from his ear canal. 

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The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) had seen enough, and requested that Britax conduct a voluntary recall on BOB jogging strollers that were built before October 2015. The company absolutely refused. Not only that, the Washington Post reports, they refused to warn their customers.

The company said the strollers were safe when used as instructed and met industry standards for safety.  

The agency didn’t back down. It sued to force a recall in February 2018. Britax kept fighting. That was unusual. Companies normally want to avoid public clashes with safety regulators, according to past and current agency staff members.

At the time, the commission was composed of three Democratic commissioners and one GOP commissioner.

The GOP commissioner was Ann Marie Buerkle, who had taken over as acting chair under Trump the year prior. The Dem commissioners say she forbade staff members from pressuring the company into the voluntary recall.

However, since the Democratic commissioners had a majority, and fearing many more children would get harmed, they voted to sue Britax in February 2018. The vote was three to one, with all Democrats voting yes and Ann Marie Buerkle voting no. 

Even after getting sued, Britax refused to order a recall. The company did improve their design for a new model so the front wheel wouldn’t come off as easily, but did nothing about the hundreds of thousands of strollers with the old design that were already out in the world, carrying babies.

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