One Year After Dresser Crushes West Chester Child, IKEA Offers Free Repair Kit

Two months after a West Chester mother sued IKEA, blaming the company for the death of her 2-year-old son, the Scandinavian chain is now offering free repair kits for millions of dressers.

Jackie Collas filed the lawsuit in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court in May.

Collas’ son, Curren, died on Feb. 25, 2014 shortly after she discovered him crushed by a dresser manufactured by IKEA. He was rushed to Paoli Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

The dresser, purchased at the Conshohocken store, came without hardware to secure it to the wall despite IKEA being aware of the tip over hazard with vertical dressers, according to the lawsuit, which accused the chain of wrongful death and negligence.

Now, the Swedish furniture company has announced a program that includes a repair kit to secure dressers walls to prevent collapse.

IKEA’s MALM three- and four-drawer chests and two styles of MALM six- drawer chests (all pictured above), along with any children’s chests over 23.5 inches, and adult chests and dressers taller than 29.5 inches are eligible for the kits.

Collas’ son was not the only child to die under an IKEA dresser last year.

A 23-month old child from Snohomish, WA, died trapped underneath a 3-drawer MALM chest in June 2014.

IKEA and the Consumer Product Safety Commission also say they have had 14 other reports of tip-over accidents involving their MALM chests.

Seven million MALM chests and 20 million other IKEA chests and dressers are part of the nationwide repair program.

The kit will include “replacement tip-over restraints for use by any consumer who has not secured their IKEA chest or dresser to the wall” and “complete wall anchoring hardware, instructions and warning labels to be affixed to the furniture.”

To get a free wall-anchoring kit, customers can visit the local IKEA store at 1 Beard Street in Brooklyn, click here, or call (888) 966-4532.

In the meantime, IKEA and the product commission encourage customers to “inspect their IKEA chests and dressers to ensure that they are securely anchored to the wall” and, if not, to move the furniture to a closet or other area inaccessible to children until the proper repairs can be made.