West Chester Family Sues Ikea After Toddler Crushed By Toppled Dresser
By Jim Melwert
WEST CHESTER, Pa. (CBS) -- The family of a two-year old Chester County boy who was killed when a dresser tipped over on him has filed suit against Ikea, the furniture maker.
Curren Collas was killed last February in his West Chester home when a 136-pound, six-drawer Ikea dresser known by the model name "Malm" tipped and fell on him, crushing his chest.
His mother, Jackie Collas, found her son when she went to his room to get him for breakfast.
Now, she and her husband have filed a lawsuit against Ikea in Philadelphia court.
"Consumers need to know about the danger, and companies like Ikea need to do much, much more in terms of educating the public about the risk," says the Collas family lawyer, Alan Feldman.
In the complaint, Feldman argues that Ikea was negligent in not properly manufacturing the dresser to prevent tipover, not warning of the frequency of tipovers of Ikea dressers, and not providing brackets or hardware to secure the dresser.
An Ikea spokesperson released the following statement:
"All of us at IKEA express our sincerest condolences to the Collas family. At IKEA, the safety of our products is our top priority. All of our products go through extensive testing and are regularly evaluated. IKEA chests of drawers are safe for their intended use when properly assembled and permanently attached to the wall, in accordance with the warnings and instructions. The best way to ensure the stability of chests of drawers is to permanently attach them to the wall."