A load of Croc?

http://www.parentdish.com/2008/07/07/mother-files-suit-against-crocs/?icid=100214839x1205423704x1200258744

My initial reason for posting this story was lighthearted and humorous (if you can't laugh at a 3 year old having major reconstructive foot surgery, what can you laugh at?) because a mall near my house has a Crocs kiosk that is located, ironically enough, immediately above one of the escalators.

However, upon reading the comments at the bottom of the story, I felt inclined to go on a rant (yay!) Believe me, the fact that there are so many people that decide to go out and sue somebody anytime something doesn't go their way absolutely disgusts me. 99.999999% of the time, I believe that people should be held accountable for what THEY choose to do (just take a look at my numerous Chris Benoit rants), but at the same time, it annoys me when somebody has a legitimate complaint and all these self righteous assholes rant and rave about how accidents happen and that you need to be responsible for your own actions.

The fact of the matter is, there must be SOMETHING defective about this product if there have been 11,000 escalator related accidents and 77 instances of foot entrapment (with half resulting in injuries) in a little over two years. And those are just the reported cases. I mean, the problem was severe enough for Consumer Reports to issue a warning about it. The contention here seems to be that the company was aware of this dangerous defect, and did nothing to warn the general public. I find it bothersome that all of these people have no problem condemning the mother for having her child wear a pair of shoes that SHE must know is unsafe (even though there's no indication that she knew that beforehand), but seem to have no problem with the manufacturer continuing to sell a product that has clearly caused harm.

Should the mother have been watching her daughter more carefully? Yes, probably. But then again, I'd venture to say that that's true in most any scenario. To tell you the truth, all of these personal attacks claiming that this woman is neglectful bother me (one poster writes, "Maybe the mother should have been paying attention to her daughter instead of blabbing on her cell phone with her shopping bags in tow" despite the fact that neither article makes any reference whatsoever to said cell phone or shopping bag). If your child has ever scraped their knee or gotten a bruise or fallen down, you've obviously taken your eyes off of them, even if just for a split second. The fact of the matter is that the company is responsible for ensuring that their product is safe. Or, at the very least, making people aware of any dangers that goes along with it. As far as I can tell, Crocs hasn't done anything to rectify this problem, whether that means changing the design of the sole or recalling a scrutinized product altogether.

In my opinion, this is not some frivolous lawsuit. There is no indication that the child was misbehaving or that the mother was distracted or not paying attention or being neglectful. Yet there IS evidence that the company was fully aware of the dangers of their product (the article even states that they're in the midst of another lawsuit over this very situation). Being that this is NOT an isolated incident, shouldn't the company be responsible for their product at some point?

This reminds me of people who refuse to believe anything they read on Wikipedia. You see, since some of the information on the website is faulty, ALL of the information on the website must be faulty. Well, just because we live in a sue-happy society where everybody wants to blame somebody else for their misfortune doesn't mean that legitimate lawsuits don't exist