Toy Injures Scotch Plains Child; Manufacturer Ordered to Pay Fine

Two years after a Scotch Plains resident suffered strangulation injuries from an elastic yo-yo toy that was banned as dangerous, a New Jersey Superior Court Judge ordered the toy's manufacturer to pay more than $67,000 in fines and legal fees to the State of New Jersey.

In June 2008, 5-year-old Sydney Blacker was injured when the toy, a rubber, water-filled ball attached to an elastic cord, wrapped around her neck, according to Thomas Calcagni, acting director of the New Jersey Attorney General's Office of Consumer Affairs. Blacker did not suffer permanent injury, Calcagni said in a telephone interview, but the yo-yo did break blood vessels in Blacker's neck before her mother was able to unwrap the yo-yo's cord.

Already, the toy had caused injuries to other residents, Calcagni said, and New Jersey had banned sales of the yo-yos in April 2008. He added that the yo-yo that injured Blacker was sold after the ban took effect. Consequently, in June 2009, New Jersey filed a lawsuit against Indiana Novelty International Inc., which does business as Kipp Brothers.

On Aug. 31, the Office of Consumer Affairs announced that Superior Court Judge John Malone had issued a summary motion that ordered Kipp Brothers to pay $54,300 in fines, reimburse the state $11,899.50 for attorney's fees and costs, and pay $1,122 for investigative fees and costs. Malone also ordered Kipp Brothers to state on the Indiana Novelty website that the yo-yo waterballs are banned in New Jersey, and to cease selling the toys to any buyer who lists a shipping address in New Jersey, Calcagni said.

On Sept. 2, AOL business website "Wallet Pop" reported that Kipp Brothers president Bob Glenn said that his company would cooperate with the state on the case. Glenn added, however, that Kipp Brothers planned to appeal the judge's ruling on the civil penalty, which he called "excessive."

"We did not know about the statute and we cooperated with them to the highest degree," Glenn told the site. He added that the company sold less than $250 worth of waterballs, and that it has since stopped selling them altogether.

Blacker's mother, Ellen, said she was pleased with the Judge's ruling. "I was happy that the state of New Jersey was after the toy company," she said in a telephone interview. "I'm happy that justice was done." She added that she is not pursuing litigation against Kipp Brothers.  

New Jersey, New York and Illinois are the only three states to ban the toys. In September 2003, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission conducted a study and issued a safety advisory about the yo-yo waterballs. It stated that it had received 186 reports of the toy's cord wrapping around children's necks. But with 11 million to 15 million of the toys in the United States, the commission found that "there is a low but potential risk of strangulation from the yo-yo water ball toy," and declined to ban the toys outright.

In an email sent last week, Ellen Blacker wrote, "I will continue my fight until there is a national ban."