More than two million baby cribs linked to suffocation deaths of infants were recalled by the CPSC and its Canadian counterpart. The hardware, which used to be metal was being made with plastic. When the plastic “hardware” would break causing the crib side to fall the baby if positioned by the side would get pulled down so his or her head and face would be stuck against the mattress side causing suffocation see the New York Times. The defective cribs were sold at big box merchandisers such as Walmart, Target and ToysrUs. We recently discussed defective baby strollers and defective pacifiers. In each defective product the defect was obvious and easily preventable. Question: For each crib how much did the manufacturer save using plastic hardware? My guess-under 2 dollars.

Ford Recall Expanded-Third time in two weeks
Ford is expanding its recall of the popular Escape SUV. 485,000 units from 2001 through 2004 must be inspected for defective cruise – control cables that sometimes unexpectedly cause the throttle to stick open. Interestingly, Ford built a similar vehicle for Mazda, called the Tribute. The Tribute has