Magazine Says Bellini Crib Fails Safety Tests -- Company Challenges The Results

BELLEVUE

A national consumer magazine has found that a type of crib sold by a Bellevue children's boutique is unsafe.

The store, Bellini Juvenile Furniture, challenged test results by Consumer Reports magazine, maintaining that the Italian-made crib meets all U.S. safety standards.

The owner, David Dannenberg, says he is willing to bet his grandson's life on it.

Bellini Juvenile Furniture, a local franchise of a New Jersey importer of Italian furniture for children, has seen its crib sales dry up after the magazine, in an issue delivered to subscribers last week, reported that one of the company's cribs failed to meet a federal safety standard in the magazine's tests.

"On average, we sell four or five cribs a week. We've only sold one since the article came out last Tuesday," said Dannenberg, who owns the furniture boutique with his wife, Tamara.

Consumer Reports, in its May issue, reported that its laboratory judged Bellini's Allessio cribs "not acceptable." The magazine said the sides of the crib could be opened by a child.

Bellini's crib was the only one of 20 models tested by Consumer Reports that failed a federal standard designed to guarantee that all cribs sold in the U.S. are safe.

The magazine has reported its finding to the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission, which originally tested and approved the crib in 1984.

The commission now plans to retest the bed, a spokeswoman said. If the crib fails the government's tests this time, the company could be asked to halt sales and recall models that are already in thousands of homes nationwide.

The finding also may apply to the five other crib models sold by Bellini because they all use the same side-release mechanism, Dannenberg said.

So far, the magazine's May issue has been seen by few readers except subscribers. The first newsstand issues were expected in the Seattle area this week.

Nonetheless, the impact is being felt in Bellevue. "We've had a lot of calls from people who own the cribs and are concerned, and from people who bought one, but haven't yet taken delivery," Dannenberg said.

So far, nobody has canceled an order, he said. Instead, some have been content to come back to the store to be trained in how to use the crib safely.

Irving Freedberg, owner of Bellini, called the article "unfounded" in a telephone interview from Englewood, N.J., the company's headquarters.

Freedberg said Bellini sells "hundreds and hundreds and hundreds" of the cribs yearly, along with other types of children's furniture, and has never been sued over any of its products. There are about 53 Bellini franchises nationwide.

"During the nine years the Allessio has been on the market, we have not received a single complaint about the release mechanism's safety and have never been notified of any injuries that have been incurred by it," the company said in a news release.

Freedberg said it's too early to tell if the allegations have caused financial damage to the company because he can't tell how much future business has been lost.

Dannenberg also strongly defends the crib's design. "I have a grandson sleeping in one right now. And I have no intention of doing anything different," he said. Nonetheless, he said, "It's been very quiet here for the past week."