Consumer 10.0: A toddler's legacy: Grief and a movement for better crib safety

One common flaw, especially on drop-side cribs, is that traditional wood-and-metal construction has given way to cheaper, plastic hardware and fittings that wear down and fail. Just last month, the CPSC announced the recall of more than two million cribs by seven manufacturers, largely because of drop-side problems that can cause a child's head or body to become entrapped - the cause of nearly all 36 deaths.

The CPSC memo also illustrated just how oxymoronic the idea of "voluntary standards" can be.

Staffers looked at 36 small domestic manufacturers of full-size cribs, and found just 24 in compliance with the voluntary standard. Among nine small domestic makers of non-full-size cribs, now covered by a detailed voluntary standard, five were in compliance. Four of five small importers of the non-full-size cribs failed to measure up, too.

Why have we tolerated this all these years?

Ginzel, a professor of marketing psychology, thinks it extends beyond the ideological divide: It's not that people oppose the "nanny state." It's that they believe government already is protecting them.

"People believe these products are safe. People believe they wouldn't be on the store shelves if they hadn't been tested," Ginzel says. "They don't believe us when we tell them the story."

Which is why it deserves retelling - and why Danny Keysar's memory is, finally, a blessing for other families' children.