Four babies have died and 31 others have been entrapped or fallen from one of the 2.1 million Stork Craft cribs recalled today, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced. Almost 150,000 of the cribs carry the Fisher-Price logo. The recall involves 1,213,000 drop-side cribs sold in the U.S. and 968,000 sold in Canada over the past 16 years.

The CPSC and Health Canada are aware of 110 incidents in which the drop-side of a Stork Craft crib detached. Of those, 15 were entrapments in which four children died of suffocation. According to the CPSC, the deaths include a 7-month-old in Gouverneur, N.Y.;  a 7-month-old in New Iberia, La.; a 6-month-old in Summersville, W.Va.; and a 9-month-old in Bronx, N.Y. Also reported were 20 falls from the cribs with injuries ranging from concussions to bumps and bruises. The cribs involved in the recall have plastic drop-side hardware that had broken, gone missing, or become deformed as well as other hardware that was loose or missing. In some cases, the drop-sides had been installed upside-down.

The Stork Craft cribs were manufactured between January 1993 and October 2009. The recall also includes Stork Craft cribs with the Fisher-Price logo that were manufactured between October 1997 and December 2004. The Stork Craft cribs with the Fisher-Price logo were first sold in the U.S. and Canada in 1998. The manufacture date, model number, crib name, country of origin, and the firm’s name, address, and contact information are located on the assembly instruction sheet attached to the mattress support board. The firm’s insignia “storkcraft baby” or “storkling” is inscribed on the drop-side teething rail of some cribs. In Stork Craft cribs with the “Fisher-Price” logo, the logo can be found on the crib’s teething rail, in the manufacturer’s instructions, on the assembly instruction sheet attached to the mattress support board, and on the end panels of some models.

The cribs were sold at major retailers in the U.S. and Canada including BJ’s Wholesale Club, J.C. Penney, Kmart, Meijer, Sears, USA Baby, and Wal-Mart stores and online at Amazon.com, Babiesrus.com, Costco.com, Target.com and Walmart.com from January 1993 through October 2009 for between $100 and $400.

Parents are strongly cautioned to stop using the cribs immediately -- meaning tonight -- and find alternate sleeping arrangements for their youngster. The CPSC advises consumers to contact Stork Craft to receive a free repair kit that converts the drop-side on these cribs to a fixed side.  For additional information, contact Stork Craft toll-free at (877) 274-0277 anytime to order the free repair kit, or log on to www.storkcraft.com. Please note that the Web site was unavailable when we tried to access it.

Consumer Reports has been warning about the dangers of drop-side cribs for some time and has urged industry to eliminate this design in favor of safer, fixed side models.