Britax Child Safety, Inc. is recalling more than 34,000 Marathon child safety seats because they do not meet federal safety standards. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the seats did not perform up to standard during routine safety testing. The NHTSA said that it is conducting the recall after it denied a petition by Britax that claimed that the Marathon child safety seats did not pose a safety concern.

The Britax Marathon child safety seat recall includes model numbers E9L06, E9W06 and E906. The recall covers Marathon child safety seats manufactured from May 23, 2006 through July 28, 2006. All of the defective Marathon child safety seats have lot number of KGR 1 A stamped on the top tether hook. The manufacture date can be found on a label located at the child’s left hand side of the defective car seat near the head/ear area. The fabric cover on the safety seat may need to be lifted up in order to locate this label.

According to the NHTSA, during compliance testing, the top tether hook on the Britax Marathon child safety seat failed to secure the seat back properly. This occurred when child test dummies weighing more than 50 pounds were placed in the Marathon child safety seats. When this was done, the top tether hook in some of the seats bent. This could cause a serious injury to a child restrained in a Britax Marathon child safety seat during a crash. So far, no injuries have been reported in connection with the defective Marathon child safety seats.

Parents who have a recalled Britax Marathon child safety seat should not use it for a child weighing more than 50 pounds until a replacement top tether hook is installed. Britax will be sending all registered owners a replacement top tether hook for their recalled Marathon child safety seat. All owners of the defective Marathon child safety seat should go online to www.MarathonRecall.com to insure that their seat is registered. Owners who have not registered their Britax Marathon child safety seat can order a repair kit online as well. Once the new tether hook is installed, the Marathon child safety seats should not be used after a child reaches 65 pounds, or when the child surpasses the vehicle manufacturer’s recommended weight for top tether hook use.

This is the second major Britax child safety seat recall in the last two months. In August, Britax recalled some of its Decathlon car seats sold between February 12, 2005 and July 31, 2007. According to that recall notice, when the harness adjuster strap on the defective Britax Decathlon child safety seat was pulled from a side angle, the bezel could separate from the child restraint shell, allowing the adjuster to move out of position from the shell housing. That made properly restraining a child difficult, and could cause a serious injury during a crash. Fortunately, no injuries have been reported due to the hazardous Decathlon car seats.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 6:45 am and is filed under Defective Products, Legal News, Product Recalls.