Tesla was recently forced to recalling every Cybertruck it ever built — 3,878 in all — because the cover on the accelerator pedal could become loose, causing unintended acceleration. As it turns out, however, you don’t even have to be old enough to get a driver’s license to deal with recalls for unintended acceleration. JAKKS Pacific just got it has recalled the Mario Kart 24 Volt Ride-On Racer because even though it’s a children’s toy, its accelerator pedal can get stuck and cause unintended acceleration.
About 17,500 vehicles are affected by this recall, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said: “If the accelerator pedal of a battery-operated ride-on toy becomes clogged with debris, it could become stuck behind when the user’s feet are removed from the pedals, creating a position that poses a risk of collision.” According to the CPSC, they have received at least 65 reports of children experiencing unintended acceleration, 15 of whom crashed into some type of fixed structure.
The good news is that only one injury has been reported so far. Luckily, it’s small enough to be described as a “scratched hand.”
If you’re the type of brilliant parent who makes your child’s dreams come true by buying them a real-life Mario Kart racing car – and I can’t stress this enough, yes, on the face of it, that game – CPSC says to stop using the karts and contact JAKKS Pacific for a free repair kit. Unfortunately, unlike repossessing a real car, you’ll have to replace the pedal yourself. However, there are worse problems, such as no real-life Mario Kart racing cars to play with.
According to the CPSC, “These vehicles have an eight-character alphanumeric production date code, in the format XXXXVEO1, located at the bottom of a blue panel on the underside of the vehicle. The only vehicles covered by this recall have the following date codes: 1752VE01, 1782VE01, 1952VE01, 2242VE01, 2352VE01, 2852VE01, 0583VE01.” If you check your code and it has a different date code, you’ll be in the clear.
