Clark Rubber ordered to recall dangerous pool fence
Follows a CHOICE investigation and safety test.
- Clark Rubber backflips, agrees pool fence is unsafe
- Recalls 147 pool fences, 19 already returned
- "This is an accident waiting to happen," minister warns
Queensland's regulator has ordered Clark Rubber to recall its potentially dangerous pool fence, prompting the company to expand the recall nationwide.
The recall comes after a CHOICE investigation found the Be Safe Portable Pool Fence didn't meet the safety standard, allowing children – such as four-year-old Curtis Modrow – to gain access to backyard swimming pools.
A recall is ordered
Queensland government minister Mick de Brenni ordered the recall this morning after the fence failed three rounds of testing by the Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC).
"The latch doesn't close and secure itself properly and this completely defeats its safety purpose," says de Brenni. "This is an accident waiting to happen."
The minister ordered Clark Rubber to initiate a recall of the pool fences sold in Queensland, but the company says it will recall all 147 fences sold across Australia.
"A lot has happened in the last 24 hours. We have been working with the QBCC for a number of weeks now, if not months, as they carved out a total safety review of the product," says Clark Rubber general manager Anthony Grice.
"As a result of that review, we are firmly of the opinion that we needed to undertake a national voluntary recall of the product. Our number one priority is getting those fences back to us."
Change in tune
The backflip to issue a nationwide recall comes more than four months after a CHOICE investigation found the pool fence failed to meet the Australian safety standard.
During the investigation, Clark Rubber offered to sell us a fence for testing, but the model that arrived had been redesigned. The redesigned fence still failed to meet the Australian safety standard.
But when we shared our findings with Clark Rubber, the company disputed the results and its lawyers said a recall wouldn't happen.
Safer laws
Changes to the law are needed to make sure businesses pull unsafe products from the market quickly, says Tom Godfrey, head of media at CHOICE.
"This latest case is yet another reminder that we need to toughen Australian Consumer Law through the mandating of a general safety provision and the introduction of tougher recall requirements," he says.
"It's time the Federal Government introduces new legal and financial penalties to make it explicitly clear to businesses that it's illegal to sell unsafe products."
Godfrey says manufacturers should disclose the return rate of recalled products, just as they do in some overseas markets.