NHTSA Complaint #11592436 — 2024 FOREST RIVER ROCKWOOD

Some RV manufacturers have started using this new "Dual Swing Door" refrigerator in select model RV's (in 2024, possibly in 2023). The refrigerator is made by Way International and is sold under the Magic Chef, Everchill, and Furrion names (and maybe more). This fridge has a single refrigerator door with a single freezer compartment door above it. These doors can open from either side without changing, swapping, or removing anything. Just pull on the right door handle to open the door to the left, or pull on the left door handle to open the door to the right. The problem is that it is a little hard to close/latch the doors fully - compared to a normal fridge door. If the door is not fully closed (and it's hard to tell by just looking at it), the next time the fridge door is opened from the opposite side, the door will fall off and hit the floor. My wife accidentally and unknowingly didn't fully close/latch the top freezer door one time and I wound up opening the freezer door from the opposite side the next day and the door fell off, striking my right shin and gouging my leg, peeling the skin off my shin in one area and leaving a bleeding wound over 2" long on my shin. Since the door hit my leg before eventually hitting the floor, the door and floor were not damaged as my leg took the brunt of the impact. My leg is healing. If an adult, fully aware of the issues with closing this type of door, failed to close the door properly, then small children could easily not fully close/latch these doors and could be hurt if they later tried opening the fridge or freezer door from the opposite side or were standing in the vicinity of the refrigerator when someone were to open it, if either door fell off. My granddaughter was in such a position 2 days before the freezer door came off, waiting for me to get her an ice cream bar from the freezer. Good thing the freezer door didn't come off then, it would have hit her in the head. Very dangerous design!