Bill to Outlaw Unsafe Bunk Beds Is on Davis’ Desk for Approval

The California Legislature has passed a bill that bans unsafe bunk beds and punishes violators with fines of up to $1,000. The measure has gone to Gov. Gray Davis for final approval.

If Davis signs the bill, California would become the second state to make voluntary furniture-industry guidelines for bunk beds into law.

Consumer advocates have pressed to make the standard mandatory because, despite federal recalls of more than 500,000 beds since the mid-1990s, dangerously designed bunk beds remain on the market.

Since 1990, at least 89 children have died from bunk-bed-related injuries, 10 of them in the last two years, Consumer Product Safety Commission records show. In most cases, victims slipped into spaces between the mattress or bed frame and the guardrail that were small enough to trap their heads.

Most major U.S. manufacturers--including Catalina Furniture of La Mirada, the top seller in the West--say they employ the voluntary guidelines, which call for, first, guardrails on upper bunks and, second, openings of no more than 3.5 inches in headboards and footboards and between the guardrail and frame.

Nevertheless, Catalina and other bunk-bed makers say they support mandatory standards as long as they are consistent nationwide.

The federal safety commission is expected to decide whether to enact a national bunk-bed rule by year’s end that would allow the government to sue and fine violators and to stop noncompliant, foreign-made beds from entering the U.S. A federal rule would supersede the California law.