Complaint Filed Against Game-Time Playground Equipment
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NEWS from CPSC

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

Office of Information and Public Affairs Washington, DC 20207
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  
October 5, 1987  
Release # 87-059

Complaint Filed Against Game-Time Playground Equipment

WASHINGTON, DC -- The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced today that United States Attorney Frank W. Donaldson has filed a complaint on the Commission's behalf in federal district court in Birmingham, Alabama, against Game-Time, Inc., a manufacturer of children's playground equipment.

The Commission's suit seeks a civil fine under the Consumer Product Safety Act for Game-Time's alleged failure to immediately inform the CPSC upon obtaining information concerning a potential hazard to children presented by one type of its playground equipment.

The company, located in Ft. Payne, Alabama, manufactures children's playground equipment including the Pull-A-Round, a manual merry-go-round. The Pull-A-Round has been involved in a number of incidents across the country where children have suffered partial finger amputations and other injuries. The company has since contacted customs and made modifications on the Pull-A-Round to eliminate the problem.

According to the complaint, the Pull-A-Round models manufactured from about 1975 to about 1983 had a socket head screw cap measuring approximately 1/2" by 2" which attached the Pull-A-Round shaft to its wheel. During normal use, that screw cap loosened and became dislodged, and exposed a hole at the base of the shaft above the platform. When the Pull-A-Round was in operation and the hole was exposed, there was a shearing or scissoring effect upon any thing, such as a child's finger, inserted in the hole.

The Pull-A-Round consists of a rigid stationary base, a stationary wheel assembly, and a circular platform to which are attached animal figures, seats or vehicles. The platform rotates on a vertical shaft attached to the stationary wheel. The Pull-A-Round was designed so that, while seated upon the animal figures or seats or vehicles, children would reach the stationary wheel in the center and pull on it to make the platform turn.

The complaint alleges that beginning in 1979, defendant began receiving claims of amputation of portions of children's fingers resulting from the shearing or scissoring effect of the Pull-A-Round, yet did not inform the Commission until November 1983 that the Pull-A-Round contained a defect which could create a substantial product hazard.