Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is recalling about 643,000 Mainstays love seat and porch rocking chairs because poor construction and over-curvature of the chairs’ runners can cause instability, imbalance, fracturing of the wood and tip-over during use, posing a falling hazard to consumers.
The Bentonville, Ark., company has received 45 reports of injuries, including a cut in the leg requiring 16 stitches, a shoulder joint tear and one incident in which a pregnant woman began having contractions after the chair in which she was sitting flipped over backward.
The recall involves three models of rocking chairs, the Mainstays Love Seat Rocker (model IT-13380) and the Mainstays Porch Rockers (models IT-13379 and IT-13270). The love seats are wooden and white and seat two people. The wooden porch rocker is sold in white and light brown and seats one person. The model number is printed on the rocker’s packaging.
The rockers were sold at Wal-Mart stores nationwide and on Wal-Mart’s Web site. The love seats were sold from May 2004 through September 2005 for about $100. The porch rockers were sold from April 2004 through March 2006 for about $50.
Consumers should immediately stop using these rocking chairs and return them to Wal-Mart for a full refund. For additional information, contact Wal-Mart at 800-925-6278.