Linda Hall: Safety recalls cause for concern

Linda Hall.

Have you noticed how many product safety recalls there have been recently?

Food, cars, small appliances and in yesterday's Herald on Sunday there was one for a gas/electric cooker.

It read: Defect: The adaptor between the gas supply and the appliance may crack causing a potential gas leak.

Hazard: Leaking gas may cause an explosion.

Crikey, that's pretty serious stuff. What I want to know is, does the manufacturer of this cooker have a record of who has bought them?

If not, how can they possibly be sure that this message is getting to them? I've never seen a product recall on social media but that's not to say they aren't there.

It's a bit like the Havelock North water saga - how do you get the message to everyone involved before disaster strikes?

And leaking gas has the potential to be a huge disaster.

Most of the time I merely glance at recalls, as I did a few months back when I saw one for a Mitsubishi Lancer. I really didn't take a lot of notice until my son said to me the following weekend, "Hey Mum, that was your car in the recall."

What? Then I had a little flutter of excitement in my tummy.

"What's the recall for?" I asked. "Something to do with the headlights flicking on and off when you use the indicator."

I whooped with joy. My new car (when I say new, it's new to me, not brand new - I'm not that rich) that I had only had for a few months had been doing exactly that.

The first time it did it I thought I must have flicked the switch the wrong way. I didn't think anything more of it because for the next week I didn't drive at night.

However, when it did it again I told Mr Neat, who said, "Don't tell me we have bought a lemon."

He looked at the lights and had me flick this and that. Of course it didn't do it.

It didn't do it every time but when it did, it was scary. When I indicated, the lights would flicker on and off.

Anyway, after my son told me this I read the recall and it said Mitsubishi would send out a letter to affected owners and, in the meantime, if there were problems to go to your nearest dealer.

So on Monday morning I was there.

I can't for the life of me remember the name of the man I dealt with but he was amazing. He looked up my number plate and said, "Your car is not part of the recall."

My heart sank. I explained that it was doing exactly what the recall notice said, that it was dangerous and that I regularly drove home from work after dark.

Long story short, within a couple of days he had it sorted. It took the mechanic about five minutes to fix.

I have to say I was so relieved that this time it was a manufacturer's problem because I thought I was in for an almighty bill.

I know there are always going to be little niggles that get through on any manufacturer's line, no matter how strict the safety measures are.

However, exploding gas and the car airbags from last week's recall is really up there when it comes to safety. I hope measures are being taken to prevent the same mistake.

- Last week I wrote about Vincent Skeen's parole appearance six weeks after his sentence.

I received an email from New Zealand Parole Board communication manager Sam Fisher, with a clarification on how parole works.

He wrote: "Vincent Skeen had been on remand for nearly two years and this is part of the sentence he serves. So while it looks like 6 weeks it is actually on top of 90.5 weeks or nearly 2 years.

"Parole is not applied for, the timing is set in law and while there are some grounds for earlier hearings this is rarely granted. Parole eligibility is at a third of any sentence over two years, unless the sentencing judge has set a longer non-parole period."

That is not all of the email and I would like to thank Mr Fisher for his informative and polite response.

- Linda Hall is assistant editor of Hawke's Bay Today.

- Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz