Consumers are still being injured by snow blowers or throwers made by MTD Products Inc., of Cleveland.
The recalled snow throwers were manufactured in Canada by an MTD subsidiary and marketed from July 2004 through March 2006, according to the October 2006 recall notice.
The recall targeted 130,000 snow throwers distributed through hardware stores, home-improvement centers, and retailers such as Sears and Kmart. The units bore several brand names – Yard Machines, Troy-Bilt, and Craftsman – and sold for about $500 to $800.
Injuries have occurred when the plastic wheel rims explode.
Although 65 to 83 percent of the snow throwers owners have been reached, this recall points that more needs to be done to protect consumers from defective products, reports Jeff Gelles in his Philadelphia Inquirer article “Consumer 10.0: Flaws in the Recall System.”
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission should use its access to product-injury data to be more proactive – for instance, to look across manufacturers and product categories for common design flaws that might be preventable, Rachel Weintraub, director of product safety for the Consumer Federation of America, said in the article.
It's not clear if plastic wheel rims could be such a problem, though they have been cited for years in recalls of products that include wheelbarrows, scooters, hose carts, and wagons, the article reports.
