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We
at Crocodile have often recounted how strong and durable the Mountain
Buggy stroller is. Here is another instance of its strength:
Recently, a building collapsed in uptown Manhattan. The report from the
New York Times said that people on their way to work rushed over to see
if anyone had been trapped and … ''When we cleared the debris, there
was a mother screaming, 'My baby! My baby!' …
“They found the baby girl's nanny; Brunilda Tirado, 56, who had tried
to shield her charge, Abigail Lurensky, 7 months, from the cascading
bricks and wood.
“The crowd of construction workers and neighbors pulled Ms. Tirado free,
her arms covered in blood, and kept going. Finally, the crowd lifted a
steel beam high enough for one construction worker to climb into the
wreckage on his hands and knees. The worker, Alfredo Ramos, 50, found
her still in her Mountain Buggy Urban Double
Stroller, that had collapsed but quite possibly shielded her from the debris. She wasn't crying or moving.
''I touched her arms and legs, and she was warm,'' he said. ''The steel
beam was about two inches from its face. I pulled the baby out.''
“Jesus Palacios, 31, a paramedic at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center,
said Abigail was covered in dust and was blue and not breathing when he
got to her at the site. Speaking at the hospital later, he said that he
and his partner, Michael Blecker, 23, had tried to revive her but that
she did not respond until they were on the way to the hospital, when she
recovered her color and started crying. ''I think she'll be O.K. because
of the way she was responding.''
The next day the New York Times reported:
It is impossible to say with certainty that the Mountain Buggy Urban
Double Stroller actually saved Abigail Lurensky, 7 months old, as
a Manhattan building collapsed around her on Thursday.
But it didn't hurt
Alan Jurysta, president of Sycamore Kids of Denver, the exclusive
U.S. importer of the strollers, observed that … The structure of the Urban
Double is sound. The frame of the stroller is made of a single piece of aluminum alloy,
and the design resembles the strong A-frame of a house, he said.
Joan Muratore, the Consumer Reports researcher who tests strollers and
other baby products, said the seat-belt system of the stroller might
have been more important than the frame. ''It may have held the baby in
as the debris fell,'' she said.
Whatever the case, Mr. Jurysta and Tritec Manufacturing of Lower Hutt,
New Zealand, the maker of the stroller, are elated at the publicity.
(They have also made arrangements to replace the stroller for the
Lurensky family.)
Jesse Muru Paenga, the chief engineer for Tritec, Mr. Jurysta said, was
''just over the moon that they saved the baby.'' He also asked Mr.
Jurysta for a favor. When city agencies like the Buildings Department
complete their investigation, Mr. Jurysta would like the crumpled Urban
Double so he can send it to New Zealand for research. ''Jesse thinks
it's quite an engineering challenge and wants to see if some design
improvements might be possible,'' Mr. Jurysta said.
And then? ''They're thinking of putting it in the company museum,'' he said.
Read more about the Mountain Buggy Urban Double
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