If you are the parent of a young child, you know how difficult it can be to keep an eye on them at every moment. Every parent has a fear that, unbeknownst to them, their child will fall or get their hands on something they shouldn’t and injure themselves. But parents in Pittsburgh and elsewhere also worry that a child will be doing everything right and still get injured. Some classic examples include when a child uses a defective toy, crib or playground equipment.
If this is true, the parent may decide to seek a suit for negligence based on products liability. Products liability is the broad term to describe a breach of duty that a company owes it’s users in terms of health and safety. The Consumer Product Safety Commission investigates incidents where products liability may be a concern. For 2013, there were an estimated 74,900 emergency-treated department injuries associated with nursery products for children 5 and younger.
Not all of these incidences involved a products liability issue. However, some of them certainly did. When a product is defective in some way, whether it be manufacturing or warranty for example, a consumer may have a claim against the business. For example, many product recalls for nursery products are announced every year for one reason or another. If an incident involved the use of one of these recalled pieces of nursery product, such as a crib, a consumer should use that information to determine if the defective product was the cause of an injury or death.
While not all of children’s injuries or deaths can be prevented, it is important to realize which ones could have been prevented. Awareness is the key to changing things for future children who will hopefully not be susceptible to the same dangerous situations as some children found themselves in with nursery product. There is rarely intent to harm on part of products liability claims. However, if a defective product has caused a loved one harm it is important to place blame where it is due.
Source: cpsc.gov, “Injuries and Deaths Associated with Nursery Products Among Children Younger than Age Five,” Accessed Oct. 5, 2015