4 Most Common Injuries In St Petersburg From Defective Products
Michael Babboni
Personal Injury
When St. Petersburg residents buy a product, they expect it to provide a safe and reliable experience if they use the product as instructed. Occasionally, products don’t work as advertised, which can be disappointing, but legally, the only thing required of a business is to refund or exchange an item that fails to work.However, there are other instances when the defect in a product doesn’t just cause it to work incorrectly; it may even cause an injury. Here are some of the more common injuries that can arise when people unknowingly use a defective product.
Choking
This is far more common in the area of children’s products. Children are more curious and are still discovering the world around them using all of their senses, including touch. This is why some products, while not structurally defective, with something damaged, can be defective in the design sense, in that they didn’t account for how a child would interact with the product.
This was more commonplace in earlier decades, though by the 1980s, toys, in particular, had been redesigned so that smaller parts that could easily cause choking were less commonplace.
Burns
Electrical burns, specifically, are one of the more common injuries that can arise from using defective products. In most common cases, burns occur as a result of electrical shocks due to faulty wiring. Poor construction can lead to exposed wiring that, when touched, can result in an electrical shock. However, in other cases, the wiring is inadequately installed in the product, and it’s just a matter of time before plugging the product in and using it creates an electrical shock in the user. Toasters and hair dryers are the most common products for electrical burns.
In other cases, the burns may happen due to a design flaw. A toy that allowed children to mix and bake small batches of cake had a heating element in the unit that emulated a full-size oven. Due to a defect in how the cake mix was inserted, sometimes a child’s hand could get trapped while the oven was baking the cake, resulting in burns.
Organ Failure
While most people think of physical objects like cars and electronics when the word products are used, food and pharmaceuticals are also products. In most cases, carefully evaluated and FDA-approved pharmaceuticals will have clearly documented side effects, so users have some expectations about possible symptoms they may experience. However, in some instances, side effects have not yet been fully reported and can lead to conditions such as heart, kidney, or liver failure.
Broken Bones
Bones will break when subjected to a strong impact. In some cases, products designed to provide protection or support will fail at a critical time. A ladder that breaks while someone is at the top can cause broken arms or even a head injury due to the fall. The same is true for helmets that should protect the head, that shatters instead of providing rigid protection. Even smaller products, such as a baby’s high chair, can break and cause a fall that results in serious injury.
If you or a family member used a project as intended and were injured due to a defect, talk to a personal injury lawyer in St. Petersburg and find out what you should do next.