Injured While Shopping: Falling Merchandise

Author: Patricia Woloch

 

When you go shopping, you probably don’t imagine being crushed by falling merchandise, but it can happen when you’re not expecting it.  It is important for you to know your rights when the negligence of store managers hurts you or your family.

Being crushed by falling merchandise is probably the last thing that you worry about when you leave the house to go shopping. Home improvement stores with warehouse atmospheres, such as Lowes and Home Depot, are the more obvious culprits, but the danger doesn’t stop there. If you shop in big box stores, such as Wal-Mart, Kmart, or Toys ‘R’ Us, you are running the very real risk of being injured or killed, or worse, watching your child get crushed to death.

 

Real danger

Falling merchandise may not sound serious when you’re picturing a package of toilet paper or a bag of chips, but an entire pallet of any item can weigh enough to cause permanent injuries or death. Examples of the types of item which are involved in falling merchandise accidents include:

·         Heavy boxes

·         Steel bathtubs

·         Countertops

·         Ladders

·         Five gallon buckets of paint

·         Drill presses

·         Table saws

·         Lumber

·         Entire pallets of merchandise

 

Poor practices

Most of these accidents are caused by improper stacking or placement of merchandise or by stocking and moving of merchandise often take while customers are shopping. This is a common problem in stores which are open twenty four hours a day. Inadequate safety policies and failure to follow existing safety policies can result in:

·         Inadequate employee training

·         Failure to warn customers of danger zones

·         Inappropriate forklift operation

·         Poor stacking

·         Stacking too high

·         Unsecured merchandise

·         Inadequate shrink wrapping

·         Unsafe displays

·         Defective racking

·         Defective pallets

 

Injuries

If you are not convinced of the danger of falling merchandise, consider the types of injuries that it can cause:

·         Brain injuries

·         Neck injuries

·         Back injuries

·         Spinal cord injuries

·         Broken bones

·         Fractures

·         Shoulder injuries

·         Knee injuries

·         Torn ligaments

·         Soft tissue injuries

·         Amputation

·         Paralysis

·         Coma

·         Neurological damage

·         Death

 

Why stores take the risk

·         It would cost money to improve the way they do things, and many fear that they might even lose customers.

·         Safer stocking would take more time, meaning more cost in hourly wages for the employees who do the work

·         Stores that are open twenty four hours would have to shut down areas of the store while they are being stocked, preventing customers from purchasing items kept in those areas

·         Safer shelving would mean buying new, more expensive equipment

·         New safety policies mean spending time and money on employee training, training which might even qualify employees for a higher wage

·         Some stores are afraid to change their look, especially those that rely on the warehouse effect to give customers the illusion of better prices

In Ohio, call or email <a href=http://www.rwklaw.com/>Robert W. Kerpsack Co., L.P.A.</a>, to schedule your free personal consultation.

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