#Cut fingers with lawnmower full#

Her article, titled 'Behind the Hype on Product Liability,' concluded: Legal scholar Anita Johnson had debunked the same story back in 1978, in the journal Forum.

They had all heard of the case, but none had been involved.' manufacturers of lawn mowers and many insurance companies. 11 issue, called it 'an example that never occurred,' explaining: One reader of Machine Design, whose letter to the editor was published in the Jan. That's all well and good, except that the alleged lawn-mower accident that Martin cited probably never happened. Ambiguous design, on the other hand, could lead to misuse, injuries and ruinously expensive product-liability litigation. His main point was that good product design should clearly suggest and limit the use of the product.

#Cut fingers with lawnmower full#

Martin concluded, 'A homeowner with a garage full of do-everything products might assume that a lawn mower can also be an effective hedge trimmer.'

Martin, an industrial designer and project engineer, told the story in an editorial that appeared last November in the trade journal Machine Design. The user's lawyers argued that nothing told the user the whirling blades were not to be used to cut hedges.'Ouch! Double ouch! Just the thought of such an awful accident makes my fingers ache, but the story also sets off my legend alarm. 'A lawn-mower company was sued by a user who picked up the mower to use as a hedge trimmer and proceeded to cut several of his fingers. Here's something to think about now that spring is here and you're getting ready to do yardwork again: