People living in or visiting the U.S. have a right to feel safe when purchasing goods, utilizing industrial equipment, filling prescriptions for medication, having medical devices implanted in their bodies and otherwise engaging with manufactured products. Yet, all too often, goods that should be safe cause devastating physical harm.
A single example of this reality occurred on a summer day in 2007. A very young girl went to the pool to beat the summer heat in Minnesota. She sat on a drain in the pool located at the Minneapolis Golf Club. The ill-maintained drain was lacking necessary safety features and the little girl’s small intestines were torn from her body.
Although the Consumer Product Safety Commission later recalled several models of pool drain covers, that action came too late to spare the health – and eventually the life – of that little girl in Minnesota. This is just a single example of how millions of defective products sold in the U.S. every year have the potential to cause devastating harm.
Holding negligent manufacturers accountable
Whether at home, at work or even in your car, you have a right to feel reasonably safe while engaging with all manner of consumer, medical, agricultural and industrial products. Unfortunately, product manufacturers don’t always treat that expectation with the respect that it deserves.
If you have been seriously injured due to a product defect, incomplete warning information or a product’s unreasonably hazardous design, know that you are well within your rights to research your legal options and to act upon them. As Americans too often learn the hard way, holding manufacturers accountable for negligence is often the only way to ensure that they’ll change their ways for the betterment of all.