Jul 1st 2014 at 3:33PM After months of disputing a safety problem even existed, Graco has agreed to recall 1.9 million children's car seats affected by defective buckles. Officials with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had urged Graco to include these seats in earlier recalls of 4.2 million seats, which contained a potentially deadly defect with buckles that were difficult or impossible to unlatch. Graco had resisted until today, saying the remaining seats were subjected to "substantially different use conditions." Collectively, the 6.1 million seats recalled over the latch problem mark the largest recall of children's car seats in history. "After thorough analysis, we collectively reached a final agreement with NHTSA that is in the best interest of our consumers and underscores our shared commitment to child passenger safety," said Ashley Mowrey, a spokesperson for Newell Rubbermaid, Graco's parent company. A NHTSA spokesperson did not immediately have a comment on Tuesday's resolution.

Earlier, Graco had maintained the difficulty involved in unbuckling the car seats was not mechanical in nature, but a customer "perception" and "frustration" issue. Lab Puppies For Sale In Cape CodNHTSA disagreed, citing more than 6,100 consumer complaints reviewed by the agency. Rsc T ShirtsSome customers resorted to calling 911 or cutting the car-seat straps to free children from the seats.English Springer Spaniel Puppies For Sale Texas Graco said Tuesday it knew of no injuries associated with the problem. But the company was a named defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit filed in California, in which two-year-old Leiana Ramirez died in a car fire in 2011. Her mother and bystanders could not unlatch her from her car seat.

The company was a named defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit filed in California. One witness, Salvador Martinez, suffered burns on his hands and arms while trying to remove the girl from the seat where she was trapped, according to the Los Angeles Times. Documents filed in March detail Graco's resistance to the recall. Two-and-a-half years after Ramirez's death, Sean Beckstrom, Graco's vice president of legal affairs, wrote that, "in an emergency situation an adult is far more likely to remove the entire car seat from the vehicle rather than unlatch the car seat's buckle and remove the infant from the car seat." Graco redesigned the affected car-seat buckles, and customers will receive a replacement buckle kit in the mail. The company said it will also provide free buckles to customers who have infant car seats not included in the recall, but prefer the redesigned buckle. In the meantime, Graco says the seats are safe to use until the replacement buckles are installed (see video below).

In an earlier statement, the agency warned parents to use "an alternative car seat for transporting children until their Graco car seat is fixed." Harness Buckle Recall - 2014 Announcement Awesome sport sedans for 2016 How to buy the final Mitsubishi Evo in the US Car Questions: Autoblog's new Q&A platform Porsche builds 170-mph Panamera E-Hybrid What kind of truck would an F1 engineer build? Ride along with us in the new AutoblogVR app! Get recall details from the NHTSA and find out what to do if your car been recalled. All Vehicle Safety Recalls Motor Vehicle Equipment Recalls File a Car Safety Complaint GM recalls 3.6 million vehicles for airbag-software problems Jeep burned down by new Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Ford expands door latch recall by 1.5 million cars Alta Motors Electric Motorcycles | Drive an Aston Martin | Hanging off a racing sidecar is as crazy as it looks | A Graco My Ride 65 car seat. Back in February, Graco, the Newell Rebbermaid unit that makes car seats, strollers and other gear for children, announced a recall of 3.77 million of its car seats, saying a defective belt harness could become stuck in the latched position, potentially trapping children in their seat.

It looks like plenty of customers took Graco up on the offer — enough to cause some delays in supply. Here’s an email sent to one customer who placed an order for a replacement soon after the recall was announced, and is still waiting: Thank you for ordering a replacement harness buckle(s) for your Graco car seat(s). We apologize for the delay you are experiencing. We want to assure you that we have received your order and will soon be sending you a replacement harness buckle(s) and detailed instructions on installing it in your Graco car seat(s). We are sending replacement harness buckles as soon as we receive them and many thousands of consumers have already received and installed them. We are doing everything we can to make sure you have your replacement kits as quickly as possible. However, we currently estimate that it could take 6-8 weeks from the time of order. on how to operate the current buckles. “Graco would like to stress that our car seats are safe and effective in restraining children and you can continue to use your car seat while waiting for your new buckle,” it adds.

It’s not clear how many are waiting on a replacement — “many thousands” have already received one — but the logistics of a big recall can be taxing on any big manufacturer. When Ford and tire maker Continental announced a recall of the tires on 107,000 Ford SUVs last year, Continental planned to satisfy the demand for replacements within three months. Graco is still in that ballpark. We’ve reached out to the company to see what it has to say, and will update if we hear anything. Newell Rubbermaid’s Graco Recalling 3.77 Million Child Seats – WSJ Safety Agency Probes Complaints of Children Trapped in Graco Seats – WSJCourtesy Graco DETROIT (AP) - Graco Children's Products is recalling 1.9 million infant car seats, bowing to demands from U.S. safety regulators, in what is now the largest seat recall in American history.The recall, announced Tuesday, comes after a five-month spat between Graco and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Earlier this year the company recalled 4.2 million toddler seats because the harness buckles can get stuck.

But it resisted the agency's demand to recall the infant seats.Buckles can get gummed up by food and drinks, and that could make it hard to remove children. In some cases parents had to cut harnesses to get their kids out. The agency says that increases the risk of injuries in emergencies.Graco argued that infant seats are used differently, and in an emergency, an adult can remove the whole seat rather than using the buckle.When Graco announced the initial recall in February, NHTSA sent the company a sternly worded letter questioning why the infant seats weren't included. The agency said parents have filed complaints with the agency and the company about stuck buckles on the infant seats.The letter also accused the company of soft-pedaling the recall with "incomplete and misleading" documents that will be seen by consumers. The agency threatened civil penalties.But Graco, a division of Atlanta-based Newell Rubbermaid Inc., told The Associated Press at the time that rear-facing infant seats weren't being recalled because infants don't get food or drinks on their seats.

Graco had agreed to send replacement buckles to owners of infant seats upon request.In a June 27 letter to NHTSA, however, Graco said that further investigation showed a "higher than typical level of difficulty" in unlatching the infant seat buckles.The company says there have been no injuries reported because of the problem. Spokeswoman Ashley Mowrey said in a statement that Tuesday's move, which brings the recall to 6.1 million seats, comes after months of sharing data and research with NHTSA. The company said the recall "is in the best interest of consumers and underscores our shared commitment to child passenger safety."Infant-seat models covered by Tuesday's recall include the SnugRide, SnugRide Classic Connect (including Classic Connect 30 and 35), SnugRide 30, SnugRide 35, SnugRide Click Connect 40, and Aprica A30. They were manufactured between July 2010 and May 2013, according to NHTSA.Graco will replace the buckles for free. Graco also is offering to send free replacement buckles to any customer, even those with seats not being recalled.