Today, the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) announced the recall of a dangerous and deadly product, the Banzai Falls Inflatable Pool Slide.
This recall came after lawyers at SUGARMAN proved to a jury that the Banzai Inflatable Pool Slide was a defective product and killed an innocent 29-year-old mother. Other pending product liability lawsuits involve a young man who was rendered quadriplegic on the same Banzai slide, and a woman who broke her neck on the same recalled slide.
When litigating and trying the product liability case against Toys R Us, which imported and sold the pool slide, we were always worried that there must be thousands of other slides like it (it was not entirely clear how many were brought to this country). There was no way as a private litigant to tell the public about its hidden dangers. The CPSC’s product recall does just that. It reaches out to upwards of 21,000 consumers who bought this defective product and who could have no idea how dangerous it is. The recall could potentially save lives.
There can be no doubt that product liability claims, and the jury’s verdict in this case, helped to take a dangerous product off the market. As a personal injury and products liability lawyer, it is gratifying to see that the system still works. There are dangerous products out there. And sometimes it takes a person who suffered tragedy to seek out representation, present a case to members of the community, and help the government do its job of protecting people from defective products like this.