IKEA launches a safety awareness campaign after death of two toddlers

According to reports, a safety awareness campaign has been launched by IKEA after the deaths of two kids in the US who died after falling chests that were not appropriately attached to the wall. US and Australian customers who have chests and dressers, together with the popular MALM series, can return them to any IKEA store and take a free anchoring kit in order to make sure that the furniture does not fall over.

According to a spokeswoman for the Swedish furniture company, in Australia, IKEA chests and dressers were distributed along with tip-over restraints and instructions for anchoring to wall.

But all customers do not use the restraints. Last year in February, CurrenCollas, 2, died when a MALM six-drawer chest fell over and hit him against his bed at his home in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

He was climbing on it when the furniture fell, and his mother found him dead when she entered his bedroom.

Curren's mother has filed a wrongful-death complaint against IKEA. She claimed that the dresser that weighs 60 kilograms, its "defective and dangerous design" was not sold with proper warnings. In May, the lawsuit was filed in a trial court of Philadelphia.

Attorneys Alan M. Feldman, Daniel J. Mann and Edward S. Goldis wrote in the complaint, “The IKEA defendants were aware of a tip-over hazard arising from falling vertical dressers and other furniture. According to estimates from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 43,000 consumers are injured each year in tip-over incidents”. They also wrote that over 25,000 of those injuries occurred in children under the age of 18.