Watchdog in new bid to have ‘defective’ car seat recalled

FRESH attempts are to be made to secure a recall of a defective car seat following pleas by a young mother whose baby died after her seat shattered in a car crash.

Catherine Hayes’s 11-month-old daughter, Shauna, died of severe head injuries after the plastic moulding on her car seat shattered, letting a safety strap loose, in a low-speed collision near her home at Miltown Malbay, Co Clare, in July 2003.

Shauna’s inquest in April heard of concerns from gardaí and two engineering experts about the seat. The coroner said she would refer the matter to the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs (ODCA).

Catherine Hayes, 25, was in despair months later to find no recall was ordered and a visually identical but strengthened model of the seat was on sale.

“The new model was tested and it passed, but there must be thousands of the old model out there in the back of cars. I see them in cars and I feel like leaving a note warning parents to take it out,” she said.

The seat was made by a French company under the Team Tex name as the Universal Challenger Explorer model but distributed here and in Britain under the Babystart name as the Multi-Recline Car Seat.

The new model, introduced in February 2003, five months before Shauna’s death, has reinforced plastic moulding and the ODCA confirmed yesterday it was tested in November and found not to pose the same risk as the earlier model.

Ms Hayes said she was shocked to discover the older seat was not recalled. “They should all be recalled because the new ones are exactly the same to look at as the old, so parents won’t know which they have.”

The ODCA agreed that both versions were “identical to the general public” and said identifying which batches to recall would be difficult without the manufacturer’s help.

The ODCA said the matter was referred to French authorities in June. “We will pursue the matter with the French authorities and establish the current position,” a statement said.

Solicitors acting for Babystart in Britain said yesterday that they could not comment before being fully briefed.