On Wednesday, the Consumer Product Safety Commission[CPSC] unanimously outlawed drop-side cribs, after dozens of infant deaths and massive recalls. The manufacture, sale or resale of cribs that have a side rail that moves up and down are now banned. The new standard, calling for cribs to have fixed sides becomes effective in June, 2011. Hotels and child care centers are to comply with the new standard as well, but will be given additional time to find replacement cribs.
The drop-side crib has come under intense scrutiny the last several years as defective hardware and assembly issues sometimes resulted in the partial detachment of the drop rail from the crib. When that occurred, small children could potentially get caught in the resulting gap[as pictured above] and suffocate. in the last 10 years, drop-side cribs have been directly implicated in the deaths of 32 infants and are suspected in a number of other cases. Since 2005 over 9 million drop side cribs have been recalled.