Garbage Hauler Repairs Large Bins To Meet Federal Safety Standard

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced that a commercial refuse hauler in Florida has brought into compliance seven large unstable slant-sided metal refuse bins of the type that are banned by federal law because they have tipped over and crushed children.

In 1977, the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a ban to address the risk of tip-over of large unstable metal refuse bins that crushed children climbing or hanging on the bins. The federal ban outlaws metal bins with a volume of more than one cubic yard if they tip over during testing. The Commission test, designed to simulate the climbing and hanging activities of children, requires that bins sustain a horizontal force of 70 pounds and a vertical force of 191 pounds.

Before the ban was issued, the Consumer Product Safety Commission had investigated 19 incidents of refuse bin tip-over, involving 21 victims, 20 of them children younger than ten years old. At the time, thirteen children had died from being crushed by unstable refuse bins. Since the 1977 ban, the Commission has investigated an additional 41 incidents of refuse bin tip-over, involving 41 victims, 39 of them children younger than age ten. There have been 16 more deaths.

As part of the Commission's continuing surveillance to find all banned unstable refuse bins, investigators from Commission offices in Atlanta, Georgia and Orlando, Florida discovered bins owned by ABC Disposal, Inc. in Port Richey, Florida that failed the federal safety standard. The Commission and ABC Disposal entered into a written agreement giving the firm fourteen days to repair or remove from public areas seven remaining unstable bins. In mid-November, the firm completed the repairs by welding extensions to keep the bins from tipping over.