The danger of the BOB stroller “was just so obvious,” said one former regulator.
Tess Sawyer, 26, takes her 3-year-old daughter inside their house near Cleveland. Sawyer says she stopped using her BOB jogging stroller in February after learning about a lawsuit settlement. By Todd C. Frankel Todd C. Frankel Enterprise reporter on The Washington Post's Financial desk covering people and policy Email Bio Follow April 2 at 7:13 PM The crashes were brutal.
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.And that meant Britax might not have to recall the BOB after all.
Under the terms of the settlement, Britax needed to launch a public-safety campaign and offer replacement parts or discounts on new strollers to affected users who requested them. But, as the company noted in a news release, it was “pleased to announce” a resolution that didn’t include a recall or formal correction plan.
The front of the stroller dipped forward. The back wheels lifted off the ground. Sawyer struggled for control. She wasn’t hurt. Her daughter, not yet a year old, was rattled but fine.When she returned home, Sawyer contacted Britax. The company sent her a new front wheel, Sawyer said, same as the first one. But that was it.
Problems with other quick-release mechanisms have led to voluntary recalls by other companies, including 18 different bicycle brands recalling more than 2 million bicycles in 2015. As recently as October, a father reported to the agency’s consumer complaint database that his BOB double-seat stroller lost its wheel while he was jogging, causing his two children to fall face first to the ground as he flipped over the stroller and landed on top of them.
One month into Buerkle’s tenure as chairwoman, in March 2017, agency staff members took the first step toward recalling the BOB with a preliminary determination that the stroller’s front wheel constituted a “substantial product hazard.” Buerkle disputed that. “The chairwoman sees her role as helping staff do the best job that they can and not standing in their way,” added agency spokeswoman Patty Davis.
Adler seemed alarmed because it appeared the investigation had been hidden from him and the other commissioners, said these same officials. The agency’s compliance staff members were “unanimous and unequivocal” about the need for a BOB recall, said Robinson, who at the time had only a few months remaining on the commission.The next month, the commission voted 3 to 1 in favor of suing Britax. The three Democrats voted for it. Buerkle was the lone “no” vote.
Robinson was replaced by Dana Baiocco, a Republican attorney who joined the commission from a Boston law firm where she defended companies against product liability claims.That change proved critical when the agency’s attorneys tried to subpoena three former BOB employees to discuss the quick release.Kaye and Adler, the two Democrats, voted for it. Buerkle and Baiocco voted against it.
Feldman said in an interview he doubted going to trial “would have been able to bring back anything nearly as strong.”Buerkle said in a statement that she recognizes that it’s a compromise, but that the deal “advances consumer safety.”
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