Most hotel cribs called unsafe
By Jayne O'Donnell and Salina Khan
USA TODAY (February 22, 2000)

More than 80% of cribs inspected in hotels and motels were unsafe, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the National Safe Kids Campaign will announce today.

In visits to more than 90 hotels and motels in 27 states and the District of Columbia, inspectors found that adult sheets, which can suffocate infants, were used on more than half of the cribs. Cribs also had loose screws, which can trap a child between broken parts, and soft bedding, which also can cause suffocation.

More than half of mesh cribs and playpens inspected had at least one hazard. Some had been recalled; others had holes that could trap infants.

The findings prompted the commission and Safe Kids to launch a safety initiative with Bass Hotels & Resorts, owners of the Holiday Inn chain, which includes inspections. The agency says 23 other chains chose not to join or didn't respond.

Omni and Hilton hotels say they are following the initiative on their own, but the agency's Russ Rader says it "can't vouch for anything they're doing." Hyatt and Mariott hotels say they have safety programs.

"I'm disappointed that other hotels are not participating," commission Chairman Ann Brown says. "They would have had our guidance on what makes a safe crib, and we'd be able to publicize where the public has a reasonably good chance of getting a safe crib."

Since 1990, the commission says, one child has been killed and three injured in hotel cribs or playpens. The agency knows of at least seven other cases, although it doesn't know whether the products were owned by parents or hotels.

About 40 babies duffocate or strangle each year because of unsafe cribs. The agency extimates that a third of the 3,000 who die from sudden infant death syndrome may have suffocated on soft bedding.

The agency is urging parents who find unsafe cribs to report them to hotels and call the agency's hotline, 800-638-2772.