When Murphy beds meet Murphy’s Law

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Murphy bed is hinged at the head end so it can fold up against a wall (as shown above) to provide more floor space in a small room such as found in a studio apartment or Bedsit. It is named after William Lawrence Murphy (1876 to 1957), who patented in early in the 20th century.  

 

Murphy’s Law was stated by Edward A. Murphy Jr. (1918 to 1990). It says that:

 

“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

 

On September 8, 2022 the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall for 8,200 beds titled Murphy beds recalled due to serious impact and crush hazards; manufactured by Cyme Tech (recall alert).

 

The problem is that:

 

“The wall beds can break or detach from the wall and fall onto those nearby, posing serious impact and crush hazards.

 

The firm has received 146 reports of the beds falling or breaking including 62 injuries involving broken bones, lacerations, concussions and other injuries.”

 

And the remedy is:

 

“Customers should immediately stop using the recalled Murphy beds and contact Cyme Tech to schedule a free inspection and repair of the bed. Cyme Tech is contacting all known purchasers directly.”

 

Wording for a recall typically comes from a company’s legal department. There is a lack of detail about the specific problem. Was it with fasteners, or the frame?

 

An image of a Murphy bed came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

UPDATE

 

Unfortunately Cyme Tech wasn’t the only Murphy bed recently recalled. On April 7, 2022 another 129,000 beds were recalled as described in another article titled Bestar recalls wall beds due to serious impact and crush hazards; One adult death reported (recall alert). And in 2018 another 2,300 were recalled in yet another article titled Rockler recalls Murphy Bed kits due to tip-over and entrapment hazards (recall alert).