More than 40 UK children whose fingers were injured by Maclaren buggies are being compensated by the manufacturer, it has been reported.
The company has refused to admit liability but has agreed to pay damages ranging from £2,500 to £10,000 to the children.
Some of the children's fingers were so badly injured they had to be amputated, the Guardian reports.
Others needed operations or suffered scars and some had permanent loss of feeling in the fingers after they were trapped when the buggies were unfolded.
Maclaren recalled one million buggies in the US in 2009. However it insisted that a recall was not necessary in the UK, although it sells hinge covers to prevent accidents.
Richard Langton, senior litigation partner at Russell Jones & Walker, who led the legal action against Maclaren, told the Guardian that the compensation agreement proved that the children's injuries were not the fault of the adults opening the buggies.
He told the newspaper: "Compensation doesn't turn the clock back for the traumatised children or their parents. Millions of buggies remain in use and despite claims from Maclaren that there are insufficient cases in the UK to warrant a recall, injuries still occur. What all my clients want is that no one else suffers needless injury.
"Any injury from a pushchair's folding mechanism may get compensation. There are cases involving other makes too. Manufacturers need to know there is a serious issue which must be addressed with more decisive action. It is time the authorities stepped in and did something here as they did in America."
A Maclaren spokeswoman told the Guardian that the company would look into each case.
She said: "We are committed to fully recompense any child who's been genuinely injured by finger entrapment in one of our products. We take the safety of children very seriously.
"We have sold more than a million buggies in the past decade in the UK and have only had around 100 complaints. We feel this issue affects the whole industry and not just Maclaren."
Have you experienced problems with these buggies? Do you think this compensation deal is good enough?
Source: The Guardian