Every year, more than 14,000 children aged 15 months or less suffer baby-walker injuries serious enough to necessitate hospitalization. While walkers provide parents with useful and easy methods of moving their children from place to place, a poorly designed walker can be dangerous or even deadly. In fact, baby walkers have been cited as the nursery product that results in the greatest number of injuries.
Baby walkers should be sources of fun transport for children, not products that present terror and pain to their occupants. Nationally-renowned baby-walker injury lawyer Jeffrey Killino believes that no child should be physically and emotionally scarred by a tragic baby-walker injury. Contact him today at 877-875-2927 to learn more about how he can obtain the compensation you deserve.
Causes of Baby-Walker Falls and Other Injuries
When baby walkers are poorly designed or manufactured, they pose a number of threats to their young users. Walkers have the potential to put children at serious risk by falling down steps, tipping over, or failing to adequately restrain their occupants. Common hazardous design and manufacturing errors include the following:
- Inadequate stop latches
- Unstable overall design
- Poor or defective child restraints
Baby walker falls became so prominent by 1997 that the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) mandated that all walkers manufactured after June 30, 1997, must be wide enough so that they do not fit through standard doorways and must have built-in gripping mechanisms that prevent stair falls.
Despite these mandates, manufacturers continue to create defective baby-walkers. In February 2014, for example, the CPSC recalled more than 3000 Bebe Love Baby-Walkers for failure to meet federal safety standards. One style of the walker fit through a standard doorway and lacked a feature that would have stopped it from moving beyond the edge of a stair. Another design contained leg openings large enough to trap a baby’s head.
Legal Claims for Baby-Walker Injuries
If a product’s defect is a cause of a user’s injuries, the injured party may bring an action for damages against the manufacturer of the product and anyone else in the chain of the product’s distribution.
- Product liability actions
Product-liability actions may be brought for injuries due to baby walkers that are defective either in manufacturing or design. A baby walker with ineffective child restraints, for example, may be found to have a manufacturing defect. A baby walker that is constructed in such a way as to allow it to pass through a standard doorway may be found to be defective in design.
Several categories of claims may be brought as product liability actions, including
- Negligence
- Strict liability
- Breach of warranty
Negligence claims
A negligence product liability claim focuses on the actions or inactions of the manufacturer. A manufacturer has a duty to exercise reasonable care in the manufacture and design of its products. If a manufacturer breaches its duty of care by creating a defective product and the defect is a cause of the plaintiff’s injuries, the plaintiff may recover damages for the injuries suffered.
Strict liability claims
Anyone in the chain of a product’s distribution may be held liable in strict liability for injuries caused by a product’s defect. The primary distinction between a strict liability and a negligence action is that actions in strict liability do not require a plaintiff to prove negligence on the part of the defendant.
Breach of warranty claims
Warranty claims, unlike negligence or strict liability claims, are contract claims. The claim arises out of the contract for the sale of the defective product that has caused a plaintiff injury. This form of product liability claim is often brought to recover economic losses caused by the purchase of a defective product.
Baby-walker accidents can result in serious injury or even death. If a baby-walker defect was a cause of such injuries in your child, you may be able to obtain damages in compensation, including costs of medical expenses, physical therapy, future-care, and any necessary vehicle- and home-modifications.
Contact Us
If your child has suffered an injury from a poorly designed or manufactured baby walker, you are entitled to compensation for damages resulting from these injuries. Nationally-renowned baby-walker injury lawyer Jeffrey Killino has extensive experience with defective baby-walker cases. He stands up to companies as large as Mattel, Inc., and will not hesitate to fight for your rights. Contact him today at 877-875-2927.
