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Faulty product injury claims, life jackets and moon cheese on toast
The first time I heard about faulty product injury claims my mind went into overdrive. I pictured exploding toasters that shoot their charred contents ten feet in the air; catapulting blackened bread up through ceilings, to blast through floorboards with catastrophic consequences.
I pictured beauty treatments that, when applied, would turn the surgically tautened, fake-tanned skin of the aging wannabe WAG into a sea green mass of vesicating flesh resembling moon cheese on toast.
But, in reality, it's not as exciting as that, and really is quite a serious matter.
Whilst researching this article I found a plethora of recent product recalls ranging from the completely mundane, to the downright ludicrously dangerous, and all the firms involved were frantically trying to get their products off the shelves or out of general use before an unsuspecting member of the public sustained personal injury as a result of the faulty product.
This in turn would lead to a product liability claim which could, of-course, be ruinous for the company.
Worryingly, I found a very recent 2008 UK product recall notice on a particular brand of lifejacket. The safety garment, including children's sizes, contained a potentially injurious defect. Owners of the lifejackets were urged to stop using them immediately, to remove a gas cylinder from the equipment and to return all articles ASAP to the manufacturer for further testing.
Yachting and boating publications and related media all over the country have issued warnings, but there was still concern that some boat owners may not have received the information and that affected lifejackets could still be in use. It's a ticking time bomb of potential disaster.
I am incredulous that a company, especially one which describes itself as a leading brand with the highest standards, could let a product out of their factories with such a deplorable defect that it has the potential for serious harm.
Obviously, I am not a manufacturer and I am not a business person; I do not know the ins and outs of manufacturing safety laws, or the logistical impossibility of knowing the minutiae of each individual item that ends up on a shop shelf with your brand name gloriously printed on it, all the while having the potential to kill a small child.
As an ordinary, average, everyday Joe I still find it horrific that this type of thing occurs. I wonder, with sadness, how exactly they realised there was a problem with the product. Has some unsuspecting seafarer inflated his lifejacket as his boat overturned only to have the whole thing blow up in his face? Did he lose his eyebrows, his hand or his life?
And now, will the company pay? I may sound vindictive, but I hope so.
I hope that somewhere right at this moment a seasoned personal injury solicitor is preparing a watertight case (pardon the pun) against the firm, in a product liability claim that will win generous compensation for the poor unsuspecting sailor.
Now, I don't know that there is a poor unsuspecting sailor out there, but I have managed to whip myself up into a frenzied state of agitation at manufacturing standards that allow this sort of thing to happen.
I haven't even got time now to write about the product liability judgement regarding faulty wheel hubs that caused a fatal truck accident in 2002, or the 2008 recall of US cots due to faulty wooden slats that could potentially trap and injure an infant, or the Australian recall of computer speakers that might catch fire when in use, or the US recall of 15,000 children's merry-go-round playsets because of a defective bearing that could cause abrasion to a small child - never mind the heartbreak when mummy or daddy take away the child's newest favourite plaything.
Aaaaghh! Product recalls are everywhere.
Sadly, no exploding toasters or green-goo face products came to light, but then really, deep down, I wouldn't wish that on anyone, anymore than I would want a child in a life jacket to find out the hard way that his lifejacket was the subject of a faulty product injury claim.
