Brandon Stein, Esquire
As a Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyer, every year around this time it appears that accidents involving children increase. While there is no rhyme or reason for the increase in accidents, perhaps it may be due to the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping and the frantic nature of this time of year. For parents, this time of year brings excitement because of the anticipation of seeing the face of a young child when he or she unwraps a gift that turns out to be exactly what they wanted – a new toy.
Being a Broward personal injury lawyer that sues companies for toy related injuries to children, it is extremely important that parents recognize the inherent dangers that toys present. Despite the fact that toy companies attempt to warn consumers of the dangerous nature of these toys, more times than not the warnings are insufficient or otherwise inadequate. Sadly, number one in the mind of a CEO of a toy company is not the safety and enjoyment that the manufactured product brings to a kid’s life, it is the bottom line number – how much the company will profit.
Here in the United States, approximately 3 billion toys and games are sold annually, and if I had to guess, a large portion of the annual sales are accrued during the holiday season. In fact, since 2000, it has been estimated that an average of 168,000 children under the age of 14 have been treated in emergency rooms with toy-related injuries each year. Additionally, since 2000, an average of 20 toy-related deaths have occurred each year. From what you might ask?
According to Safe Kids USA, choking, drowning, strangulation, or a motorized vehicle incident causes many toy-related fatalities. Yet, it must not be forgotten that South Florida personal injury lawyers sue companies for choking-related deaths from dangerous toys such as balloons and small play balls. Also, many lawsuits filed in Aventura by child injury lawyers are based upon consumer product safety violations committed by the toy companies.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC”) is tasked with protecting the public, including children, from unreasonable risks of injury or death associated with the use of manufactured products. In 2008, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act required the CPSC to issue a rule outlining labeling requirements for toy catalogues and other printed materials. Under this mandate, for any toy that poses a choking hazard and contains a warning on the box, the advertisement for that same toy must include the a warning of this dangerous condition. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act also requires that toys be tested to ensure their compliance with the CPSC standards.
For Miami lawyers that help children injured from dangerous or defective toys, it is crucial that the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act is considered in every case. Also, one must always be mindful of the CPSC this time of year and that every toy that a child opens during this holiday season falls within the purview of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
