Dangerous Toys: An Alarmingly Common Occurrence Part 1
Over the past few decades, mass production of children’s toys has become increasingly popular. Toy manufacturers have seen their profit margins increase with the ability to produce more toys in a shorter amount of time. However, with more toys being produced at a faster rate than ever before, the chances of defective or dangerous toys sold to consumers and the risk of child injury and death also increases dramatically.
Previous generations saw the manufacturing of not only toys but cars as well as other products here in the United States. However, today many products are imported to the U.S. from other countries and according to the recent article Playing with Safety: Dangerous Toys and the Role of America’s Civil Justice System, the number of child injuries and deaths directly corresponds with the rising number of imported toys. Nearly 30,000,000 toys are imported from foreign countries every year, which accounts for 95 percent of all toys that are sold in the U.S.
The toy standards that other countries must meet in order to pass inspections are different than those of the U.S. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued more than 850 dangerous toy recalls since 1974. However, due to the CPSC’s severe lack of manpower, many recalls were voluntary and companies were not required to recall their products. In recent years, civil actions that were filed because of child injuries and death have forced toy manufacturers to recall dangerous and defective toys.
Children should not be injured due to defective or dangerous toy products. However, because of lax regulations during the manufacturing process or because of the oversight of federal standards, many parents find themselves seeking justice because their child was injured by a toy. Ray Maples, dedicated Oklahoma City dangerous product injury attorney and founder of The Maples Law Firm, has extensive experience successfully handling a variety of personal injury cases, including cases that involve dangerous toy injuries. Mr. Maples can help you understand your rights, options and what kind of compensation your family may be entitled to if your child has been injured by a toy. Contact The Maples Law Firm to see how he can help you at (405) 705-5050. We offer free and confidential consultations. Also, be sure to check back with our blog for the second part of this two-part series regarding toy safety.