Legislation Would Make Safety Testing for Children's Products Mandatory

(NBC News) -- There is a piece of legislation winding its way through Washington, it's about to be re-introduced.

It would make safety testing for children's products mandatory, and could have an affect on the type of experience you're about to hear.

A family that says a defective product put their little consumers at risk, over and over again.

Lisa Parker has more.

They are supposed to ease the pain of parenting. Lighten the load, lessen the stress. The reason that this northwest side family of five says they bought a double stroller.

Nancy Ligue, Mother: "I need it for everything. I mean, when I have to go to the store, when I have to take them to school."

Early this fall, Nancy Ligue says she got an Evenflo "Take me too" stroller to help take her kids on their 14 block walk to school.

Smooth sailing she says, until�

Nancy Ligue, Mother: "The stroller is tilted off to the side and I'm like what is going on with this?"

Ligue says one of the stroller's back wheels popped off, leaving Nancy and her kids in the lurch.

Nancy Ligue, Mother: "I had to try and put it back and keep it on while juggling the stroller."

A scary experience she wrote off as a fluke, until just weeks later.

Nancy Ligue, Mother: "The exact same thing happened. All of a sudden, the wheel comes off again!"

Not once, now twice, but, you guessed it, three times.

Nancy Ligue, Mother: "The third time, I was crossing the street and when the wheel came off, I was like, 'Oh no.'"

Three separate Evenflo double strollers, three back wheels, the same problem. Unbeknownst to Ligue, the same potentially dangerous situation being reported online by dozens of Evenflo customers across the country.

One Nebraska parent warns, "This stroller will leave you stranded." a Colorado mother writes, "Beware of back wheel." a Texas woman advises consumers to "Stay away" calling the stroller "a worthless piece of junk."

Nancy Cowles, Kids in Danger: "Its definitely a dangerous situation. I mean strollers, I think parents should be able to assume that when you buy a stroller the wheels aren't going to fall off."

�Kids in Danger� says this is not the first time a troubled product has stayed on the market even as parents nationwide spoke out loudly and clearly about it. The safety group says it is a symptom of a larger problem.

Nancy Cowles, Kids in Danger: "Because its a voluntary system, the CPSC is very stymied in taking any mandatory action, they really have to cajole the manufacturers to go along with them."

Gary Ligue, Father: "Honestly, I don't know how they could pass this product on the market like that."

Stroller giant Evenflo first blamed the Ligue's problem on assembly at the family's end. But it also tells Target 5 it has now "Revised the take me too" tandem stroller instructions and ins "introducing design modifications related to the rear wheel assembly."

Gary Ligue, Father: "The only thing holding it on is this little piece of plastic."

The company wouldn't say if parents like the Ligues led to this change, parents who feel their children deserve a better level of safety than they got on this bumpy ride.

Nancy Ligue, Mother: "I'm disappointed, frustrated, angry, mad. Never show me that stroller again!"

The consumer product safety commission can't, by law, tell us whether or not it's investigating this product. The proposed legislation sponsored by Illinois congresswoman Jan Schakowsky would give that agency more teeth, and replace voluntary safety standards with mandatory ones. Those are the kinds of standards already in place for items in your home, like toasters and TV�s.