by Katie Hammer, WTVO
"You would have no idea that by opening an oven door and placing weight on the edge of the door that the range would tip," says attorney Dan Sciano. But it does, if small metal brackets known as anti-tip devices are not installed.
Sciano says they are rarely installed and several kids across the country have died as a result. "It's a latent defect; it's a defect that's hidden," says Sciano.
The manufacturers provide the device and warn consumers of the danger, but Sciano says the warning is too small to read. "If you look down and someone says, 'what does it say?' You can't do it. You would have to get down on your knees and still I don't think you could understand it," says Sciano, referring to the small label that is inside the oven door.
Regardless, he says installers rarely put them in place. "98% percent of the time they're not installed, 100% of the time with others, 10% percent of the time installed with other manufacturers."
WTVO performed some random spot checks and found Sciano's claims to be true.
"I'm surprised, I would even have to think about this that something isn't already pre-done with the stove to make sure it doesn't tip," says James Smitley. Before we stopped by Smitley's home, he had never heard of anti-tip brackets, and he was shocked when we asked him to put pressure on his oven door. "See I'm barely putting any pressure and it's tipping over," says Smitley.
The same thing happened when we stopped by Lucia Butera's home, who is a mother of three. "I've never heard about an anti-tip device for the stove. I would think that would be so heavy kids couldn't push it over," says Butera.
Sciano is from out of state but he's in Rockford working on a case. A child living in the Concord Commons housing complex was burned after a stove tipped over on her. It is just one of more than 100 cases involving stove tip-overs Sciano has been involved with.
"In those moments, the children come into the kitchen, open the oven door, put weight on the door, and the pot of boiling oil hits the 2 year old and catastrophically burns her," says Sciano, describing the Rockford case.
Sciano has even come up with a design he says would have prevented these injuries and deaths. "Make the door yield without a bracket on the back of the range. That can be done in many ways, add weight to the back of the range, they're already 140 pounds and take two people to move them."
But time and time again his argument has been lost against the manufacturers in court. "'There are not enough injuries' is what we hear from the lawyer of the major manufacturer," says the attorney.
Sciano is so passionate about saving the children, he says he will continue his campaign until he never has to represent another family that has lost a child.
In a written statement to WTVO from The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, they tell us "Manufacturers adhere to all safety and stability requirements set by U.S. Safety Organizations"
