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Injured by Falling Merchandise |
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Written by Tara Pingle
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We know what happens to an object which falls to the ground from a high shelf. It gathers speed as it falls, effectively becoming more heavy as it travels.
· In about a third of incidents where merchandise has fallen from a high shelf on to a customer, that customer has sustained a head injury. Head injuries are among the most serious, permanent, and even fatal of injuries.
· About another third of such incidents cause injuries to the customer’s feet.
· In the remaining incidents, most injuries are to the customer’s back, neck and shoulders.
Most of these accidents happen between October and January, when extra merchandise is stored in preparation for the Christmas rush. Victims can suffer from long-term impairment from spinal and brain injuries, and even wrongful death.
High-Stacking of Merchandise From the store owner’s viewpoint, this high stacking is a smart move. It cuts way down on warehouse costs, saving them millions of dollars.
In itself, high-stacking isn’t necessarily a problem. The problem enters when the store fails to secure the stacked items to prevent them from falling.
What causes such an item to fall?
· Perhaps it was carelessly stacked so that over time it became dislodged and fell.
· Perhaps an impact to the shelves beneath it caused a wobble that sent it tumbling.
· Perhaps an employee or another customer removed another item that was keeping the first one in place.
Defense lawyers will probably say that the customer caused it to fall. The customer reached for something too high, or even climbed onto a stool or ladder, and somehow disturbed the stability of the items stacked above him.
No safety standards for customers. There aren’t any reliable statistics about how many customers have been hurt by falling merchandise in these super-stores. That’s because the warehouse owners aren’t required to file any accident reports, and because the OSHA safety standards protect workers but not customers.
There’s no government agency responsible for protecting customers from falling merchandise.
The racks and the merchandise both unsecured. After the 1994 earthquake in San Francisco (which luckily happened in the wee hours, so no customers were in any super-stores), there was some study done of how to strengthen and stabilize the tall racks. Many of them fell and created a twisted steel mess.
Some measures were adopted in some stores, such as:
· Bolting the base of each structure to the concrete floor using 4 bolts rather than just one
· Doubling the metal columns which supported heavier loads, and
· Adding safety clips and bolts to attach cross beams to the uprights more firmly
But even if the racks and shelves stay put, there are huge heavy loads on them which could still fall.
Some ideas have been discussed, such as tying boxes of goods together with shrink-wrapped plastic, rope or steel bands. This would decrease the number of loose items that could fall, and increase the mass of the bound items, making them more stable.
One argument against this idea is that tying boxes together will interfere with the forklifts trying to move boxes around.
Perhaps there should be size or weight limits for items stored on top of the steel racks, but who’s going to decide on what they are, and who’ll enforce them?
Long and expensive litigation. Since the stores which do this high-stacking are usually large chains, with lots of lawyers and plenty of cash, any dangerous premises lawsuit brought against them will be protracted and expensive.
On the other hand, any compensation awarded by a jury is likely to be very large, often in the millions.
On average, such cases drag on for 3, 4 or 5 years and cost anywhere from $30,000 to $70,000 to litigate, not counting the attorney’s time.
Some attorneys specialize in this type of case, taking fewer cases than they might otherwise take, spending longer on each case, and hoping to receive larger fees from the large compensation amounts awarded. Other personal injury lawyers take them sparingly, along with more simple sorts of cases.
If you’ve been injured in such an accident, it would be wise to consult an experienced personal injury lawyer or wrongful death lawyer without delay.
For more information or to schedule a consultation, feel free to contact Jay Trucks personal injury attorney of Flint, Michigan.
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