The world's largest auto maker, Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) announced Tuesday that is was about to issue the biggest recall in the company's history, as problems with some floor mats has led to numerous accidents and at least five deaths.

The recall involves eight different models of Toyota and Lexus vehicles manufactured and sold in the U.S. over the past six years, and include the popular Prius hybrid. Apparently, there is a problem with the driver side floor mats that result in the mats coming loose and jamming down the accelerator.

After losing about 40% of its value last week, Crocs (NASDAQ: CROX) has another headache.

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that "Japan has asked the maker of Crocs to look into changing the design of its footwear after complaints that children wearing the colorful plastic clogs have had their feet injured on escalators."

The company has faced similar accusations in the United States and Crocs is reportedly working with the Elevator/Escalator Safety Foundation (I can't believe that even exists) on public education initiatives.

What does all this mean for Crocs? Probably not much beyond the company's already dismal financial results, although the posters warning about the dangers of Crocs near escalators in Japan probably won't do much to spur sales.

Crocs' dramatic fall from grace has been an interesting story to watch, and the company just doesn't seem to be able to catch a break.

The safety concerns are not disclosed as risk factors in Crocs' latest 10-K, indicating that the company's management may not see them as a material threat to sales.

Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) is again recalling about 1 million of its Easy-Bake Ovens due to a design flaw that puts children at risk of getting their fingers caught in the oven door and suffering burns.

Not to make light of the situation, but I'm a little stunned that an Easy-Bake Oven is able to burn anyone. This is a child's toy that cooks brownies and miniature cakes -ever-so-slowly - with a light bulb, after all. Then again, I also hated the Snoopy snow-cone maker - also made by HAS - which just basically seemed like sugar water poured over ice cubes.

As a little girl interested in cooking, I much preferred to just help my mom out in the real kitchen. But I was just one odd child, and the sensibly priced Easy-Bake brand (currently about $25) has been popular among both boys and girls for four decades.

Hasbro first issued a voluntary recall in February, supplying a repair kit to address the problem. In the subsequent months, however, there have been almost 250 reports of children getting their hands caught in the oven door, 77 of whom were burned as a result and one of whom suffered the partial amputation of a finger.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said today that toys purchased before May 2006 were not affected. The defective toys were on shelves at Toys 'R' Us, Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT), and Target (NYSE: TGT), among other locations.

The venerable product should no longer be available. Customers who already own an Easy-Bake Oven can contact the company at 1-800-601-8418 to receive details on how to proceed with a return and receive a voucher for another Hasbro product.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Last week the House voted a whopping 411-3 to approve HR 1773, the Safe American Roads Act of 2007, which would set strict criteria and additional oversight of the DOT's Mexican pilot program announced in February. The vote attempts to slow the Department of Transportation's proposed pilot plan to a crawl until the DOT inspector general can certify in advance its department has met all 22 conditions Congress set back in 2001, before the U.S. southern border would be opened. The measure would require the DOT to publish detailed plans for its program, including the results of its safety audits of Mexican carriers, as well as giving U.S. truckers access to Mexico when the border opened.

If the U.S. Department of Transportation finds Mexican trucking companies violate U.S. safety regulations, the proposed pilot program would be terminated immediately.

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (Republican, W.Va), a House Transportation Committee member, said "There are serious flaws in the department's pilot program, and this legislation addresses them." One of the new law's provisions, which Capito backs, is the requirement that Mexican truck drivers speak English proficiently. Rep. Capito endorsed the law giving Mexican truckers access to U.S. roads only if they follow U.S. safety rules.

Before the vote, the DOT said it was almost ready to allow trucks from Mexico into the U.S., but the House, and other special interest groups, obviously disagree. Ken Hall, a Teamsters International Vice President, said Mexico has lax or nonexistent trucking laws. Last year, [the Teamsters] hired an independent investigator who found Mexican drivers had bad equipment and routinely used drugs." Jacqueline Gillan, vice president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, said "The vote was a bipartisan check on a runaway demonstration project that lacked any public input and violated current law."

The DOT now says it could be as late as 2008 before Congress's new criteria are met.

It's always a tragedy when a young person dies in a way that could have been avoided. A 21-year-old woman was killed when she was hit by a roller coaster at Legoland in Denmark over the weekend.

Apparently the woman, a Legoland employee, had jumped over a security fence to pick up a wallet dropped by a customer. She was hit by the roller coaster and killed instantly, according to news reports.

One would think the ride operators would first shut down the ride before venturing onto the tracks to retrieve anything. That would seem to be standard safety common sense. Of course, 21-year-olds are known for their immortality, real or imagined, as well as for their impatience. Maybe she couldn't wait for them to shut the ride down first.

At any rate, it does bring up questions of safety standards. In 2005, Lego sold its four Legoland parks (in Denmark, England, Germany and California) to the private equity group Blackstone Capital Partners. Has staffing or training procedures suffered at all in lieu of the bottom line? Just wondering.

Other than an occasional road trip back to the home office in Cincinnati, to which I safely venture in the confines of my own Volvo S-40, I don't have to do a whole lot of business travel. I'm part of a growing minority, however, as more and more female professionals are hitting the jetways and highways for business travel. The increased number of female travelers is having a palpable impact on business travel, from improved hotel rooms to enhanced safety features.

Typical hotel rooms have bettered their creature comforts, supplying better bedding, more palatable room service, and improved closets and work spaces. Improved lighting is helping business travelers of both genders feel more safe. Many attribute these changes to the ramped-up presence of female business travelers, who are more apt to share their experiences with friends and co-workers.

Late last October, my husband and I reveled in St. Louis with hundreds of thousands of Cardinals fans as our team claimed the World Series title for the first time since 1982. We greeted dozens of strangers with high-fives and hugs. We stumbled through the downtown city streets, late into the night, propelled by an overwhelming sense of revelry and camaraderie. We had no idea, of course, that we were acting so carefree in a city that was about to be named the most dangerous in the U.S.

So I was relieved this morning when Missouri failed to make AOL Money & Finance's list of the 12 most dangerous states. This means, of course, that our crime rate is neatly contained within the Gateway City, which is where I currently reside. Not ideal, but we have to take our victories when we can.

While it doesn't have the highest rate of murders, burglary, or other violent crime, Nevada has high enough rankings across the board to earn it the number-one spot. Number two is New Mexico, which ranks second in the U.S. for rape, assault, and burglary offenses, and number three is Arizona. The remaining top 12 breaks down as follows:

A brief look at railroad freight traffic numbers offers some tell-tale signs as to where our economy is heading. I like to review railroad loading statistics because they can give you a crystal-ball edge in guessing where the big money is leaning in the volatile economic food chain. Basically, right now the numbers are firm year over year, but the freight demographics are what I find interesting.

According to the Association of American Railroads: Total rail freight volume is up 8.9% as compared to 2006, but while container volume is up about 14%, trailer volume is down 6.2%. That indicates that for the year so far, the railroads are probably moving more imported product than domestic product.

While total carload freight (not including inter-modal) was down nearly 1% this week as compared to the same week last year, total ton-miles increased 0.3%, indicating that less freight is moving but it is traveling more miles. That is clearly due to the decreasing inventories of manufactured product, which should bode well for manufacturers in the second and third quarters. That's assuming that consumer spending maintains current levels.

Nonmetallic mineral shipments have increased nearly 20% by volume over last year. This shows strength in base chemicals, base raw materials, glass, concrete, asphalt, industrial construction, and infrastructural improvements. Metallic ore shipments are down over 50%; I believe that shows weakness most especially in steel, tin, aluminum, and copper. Lumber and wood product shipments declined nearly 25% -- no reprieve for the home building market there! Petroleum product shipments are up 9.2% year over year, and coal shipments have increased 3.1%. Here's a tip, it looks like road building and resurfacing will be a big gainer this summer!

March 18 through 24, 2007, marks National Poison Prevention Week and it comes with some good news.

In the 1970s there were more than 200 child deaths a year attributed to the accidental ingestion of any manner of dangerous household chemicals, personal care products, over-the-counter medications, and cleaning agents. Due to the efforts of multiple agencies, the occurrence of these unfortunate accidents has been reduced to about 36 a year.

In 2005 about 91,000 young children visited hospital emergency rooms do to unintentional poisoning, and poison control call centers fielded more than 1 million calls. By maintaining constant availability and aggressive public awareness, organizations such as the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission seek to further reduce accidental poison fatalities.

To prevent these incidents, CPSC recommends the following safety steps:

The Consumer Products Safety Commission has levied a fine which may bode well for The Home Depot, Inc.'s (NYSE:HD) sales of Charmglow grills this coming summer. It has been reported that Nexgrill Industries has agreed to settle a claim that they allegedly failed to inform officials of a potentially dangerous gas grill defect in a timely manner. The CPSC has provisionally accepted Nexgrills agreement to pay a $300,000 fine in the matter.

Nexgrill had received reports of gas grill fires, including reports of minor injuries, and allegedly failed to report the possible defect to the CPSC for 10 months. The news release states that Nexgrill had sufficient reason to believe they were dealing with a product defect. Finally, in June of 2006, Nexgrill did announce a recall of about 16,000 of the potentially offending grills. The possible defect exists in the placement of a fuel hose which may be situated too close to the heat source and thereby may potentially separate from the burner unit and create a fire hazard.

Nexgrill has made available a retrofit heat shield which eliminates the potential hazard. You may contact them regarding this corrective measure at this web address: http://nexgrill0025.serorder.com/. With this now behind them, both companies have the coming summer to look forward to.

If you've had a baby in the U.S., you've probably done the obligatory walk to the car with a nurse, who inspects your vehicle to make sure you have, indeed, installed an infant car seat.

Consumer Reports came out with a (for parents) terrifying and (for the Evenflo Company, Inc.) damaging study today that detailed crash results from 12 widely-available infant car seats. To put it mildly? I never want to put a baby in a car again. Next time the nurse walks me out, it will be to the bus stop. Something I didn't know: infant car seats are only meant to withstand a crash at 30 mph. When Consumer Reports tested car seats at 35 or 38 mph, most seats failed, disengaging from their bases or (in four cases) flying out of them. Many seats would have "inflicted grave injuries" according to the Consumer Reports.

Newell Rubbermaid Inc. (NYSE:NWL)'s Graco Products unit has reason to crow, however; its SnugRide with EPS car seat was one of the two that passed the tests; both it and the other acceptable seat, the Baby Trend, Inc. Flex-Loc, retail for around $90.

I'm certainly glad to know that my children, having always been buckled into Graco SnugRides while in the car, were reasonably safe. But I have to ask myself: is the lack of safety of the inexpensive versions an even deadlier stake driven between the poor and the middle-class?

In yet another sign of why inventories are so high for U.S. car manufacturers, the Institute for Highway Safety said that a number of foreign cars made its list of 2007 model "safest cars." No domestic models made the list. The reason appears to be that so few American cars have electronic stability control which senses when a car is in trouble and applies the necessary braking.

Cars from Audi, Saab, Subaru, Mercedes, Honda, Volvo, and Acura made the list. Especially embarrassing for U.S. companies is the fact that Hyundai, the Korean manufacturer with only a sliver of the American market, had two vehicles that received accolades.

All Detroit needs is another well-publicized reason for people to buy competing products. Without a willingness to be first to market with better safety technology, they got one.

Douglas McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

Is this a line dance? Last week, Dell's recall of 4.1 billion Sony-manufactured laptop batteries must have sent every laptop manufacturer scurrying to their quality control department. I should have just gone ahead and bought the domain, "applebatteryrecall.com" right then, because here it is 10 days later and guess who's recalling Sony batteries now?

Yep, Apple. The cutest of all computer companies only has 1.8 million batteries as a part of its recall, from 12" iBook G4, 12" PowerBook G4 and 15" PowerBook G4 laptops sold between October 2003 and August 2006 in the U.S. Unfortunately for the headline writers, no Apple laptops actually caught fire, although two consumers did receive minor burns when their laptop overheated.

While no one likes a recall, it doesn't seem as if either Apple or Dell will feel it on the bottom line; and, in fact, Apple stock is up a tick on the news, 21 cents, to $67.52. Sony Corp (SNE), on the other hand, is down nearly 3% to $43.27.

[Photo courtesy Dat Nguyen]

As a longtime user of both eBay and social software, they seem a logical pair to me. eBay is, after all, known for its vibrant community and the fact that people do trust each other with vital details like their home addresses! (Not to mention, their cash.) Alyce Lomax of the Motley Fool, though, is a bit shocked that eBay would pony up its own cash to invest in Meetup, where people (yikes!) decide to meet first online, and second in person.

Perhaps I'm a bit taken aback only because the vast majority of my current friends would only be imaginary if it weren't for social networking online through blogs, craigslist, and (yes, even) eBay. I'm personally offended by Lomax's opinion that a $2 million investment in Meetup might, somehow, connect eBay with the unsavory underbelly of the net.

Not so! eBay and Meetup are a logical match; both have staked their life on the fact that people, deep down, are worth trusting no matter where you met them. And what better place to find people who share your love of Barbie dolls (new in box) or Lensbabies or your stay-at-home mom lifestyle than eBay and Meetup?