Graco Children’s product has agreed to pay the fine of $1o million in civil penalty for failing to inform the customers about the defect in the company’s car seat.
The defect being that the buckle in more than 4 million car seats stuck and traps the child inside.
“Parents need to know that the seats they trust to protect their children are safe, and that when there’s a problem, the manufacturer will meet its obligations to fix the defect quickly. Today’s action reinforces that responsibility in a way that will make our kids safer for decades to come.” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.
U.S investigation was started last year, finding out whether they have delayed in informing the customers about the defect after many complaints were made by the customers that they are facing difficulty in getting their children out of the jammed seat and pleaded to get the seat fixed.
This settlement finally closes the investigation. According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration this is the largest recall of child seats.
Graco must pay $3 million immediately to the U.S. government and the remaining $7 million in the next five year unless it will use that money to create a new safety procedures and new plans to address and improve the child safety.
And it would also need to get an additional third party certificate that compling to the U.S. laws to the other half of penalty.
“We have worked closely with NHTSA throughout this process and regret that we fell short of NHTSA’s expectations for data collection and reporting procedures,” Graco president Laurel Hurd said.