Is Your Baby Safe in a Shopping Cart?
Shopping carts purport to provide a safe avenue for children to sit and relax while parents shop. However, shopping carts also create opportunities for injuries. The U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission outlined that between the years of 2010 and 2012, the annual average of emergency department-treated injuries with shopping carts of children under the age of 5 was 21,600.
However, because this is not a highly reported area, parents are often uninformed of the major risks that shopping carts pose to their children. Further, according to Nationwide Children’s, close to 66 children are injured daily due to shopping carts.
Child Injury from Shopping Cart Use
Shopping carts can injure adults and children due to defective wheels, cart malfunctions, and a general lack of maintenance. Spills, traffic, and a lack of store maintenance can also increase the risk of injury to both you and your child.
When considering age, weight, and other underlying health conditions, the risk of injury in adults heightens. Older adults often face an increased risk of injury at the grocery store due to a decline in health and or fragility due to their advanced age.
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Are Motorized Shopping Carts Safe?
Motorized shopping carts provide an avenue for those with a lack of mobility to shop easier and quicker. However, if operators use these carts at a higher rate of speed, this can result in injury.
A lack of general experience in operating a motorized cart coupled with inadequate warnings provided to users can result in injury. Grocery store owners may be able to decrease the likelihood of injury by disabling higher speeds on these carts.
Car Damage from Shopping Carts
Has your car been hit and damaged by a shopping cart? If so, you may be entitled to compensation. Our personal injury attorneys are here to help you, as grocery stores have a duty to keep their premises safe for consumers.
This includes providing a cart attendant to frequently collect shopping carts to prevent damages and injuries. Due to weather conditions such as wind, rain, snow, and thunderstorms, shopping carts can become dangerous. But poor weather conditions do not excuse property owners from their duty to adequately maintain the premises.
What Is Negligence?
Grocery stores have a duty to ensure that their premises are safe for patrons. Further, grocery store owners must ensure the upkeep and maintenance of these areas for consumers. In Nevada, a claim for negligence requires four elements to be met:
- Duty of care
- Breach of that duty
Our personal injury attorneys will help you prove this in your fight for compensation. Contact us today.
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How Can You Prevent Injuries?
First, make sure your children are buckled up when using a shopping cart. You don’t want to be found liable for not taking adequate steps to prevent injury as this will decrease the compensation you may receive in damages for your injury. If you are operating a motorized cart, make sure you maintain a safe speed.
This will prevent you from injuring others and being found at fault for their injuries.
For Your Best Chance at Winning, Keep All the Evidence
Preserving evidence is key to success with a personal injury claim. We recommend that you take pictures as soon as possible. Next, contact us so that we can examine the scene and begin working on your case.
We want to make sure that you don’t lose any evidence. This includes medical records for injuries and any car repairs.
Did you receive physical therapy as a result of your injuries? Keep those records as well. You may even be able to receive compensation for any work missed due to your injuries.
How Long Do You Have to File a Claim?
Each state sets certain standards for how long you have to file a personal injury suit. Our personal injury attorneys are prepared to assist you as soon as you walk through the door. A shopping cart accident is likely a claim for negligence, meaning you have two years from the date of the accident to file your claim with us.
The sooner the better, so contact our experienced personal injury attorneys today.