Earlier this week, I read an article about a lady in another state who suffered a serious head injury from falling merchandise in her local Walmart store. You can read the article at Lawsuit Says TV Fell On Woman. While this lady was a customer, falling merchandise is a danger to both customers and other store employees.
Over the years, we’ve represented numerous retail workers injured by falling merchandise. In many of those cases, we were fighting for work comp benefits due to serious head and upper body injuries. We’ve also represented numerous workers injured because a store required them to climb and retrieve merchandise at heights with little regard for safety. In both situations, merchandise stored or displayed at significant heights presents serious dangers. This presents a huge risk of traumatic brain injury to people. Many customers don’t realize this risk as they shop the aisles at our local stores.
Today, I’ll focus mainly on customers. Is falling merchandise a danger to innocent store customers? Yes, in many big box stores it is a serious issue. In recent years, I’ve prepared a case very similar to the one in the news article I mentioned at the beginning of this post. My case also involved falling merchandise at a Walmart. This Walmart was in Guntersville. My client suffered both traumatic head and shoulder injuries which left her significantly disabled. Because of her injuries, she required shoulder surgery. And, she suffered cognitive impairments from the traumatic brain injury. These accidents are often very serious. What is the problem with falling merchandise at big box retailers?