Dangerous or Defective Toys or Other Gifts | Injuries Caused by Decorations
It’s the holiday season, a time for giving. You need to be careful, though, that the gift you give doesn’t include a trip to the emergency room or worse. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reported in 2022 more than 100,000 injuries tied to holiday decorations, holiday gifts, and holiday cooking mishaps, including a number of fatalities. What are the common product liability claims that arise around the holidays?
Dangerous or Defective Toys—The Greatest Risk of Injury at the Holidays
The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports approximately 250,000 ER visits every year for children who suffer some type of injury because of a toy. More than half of those—about 140,000—are caused by Christmas toys. Among the most dangerous toys given to children every holiday season are:
- Toys with small pieces—This is the leading cause of injury in small children. Toys with beads, balls, and marbles are easily ingested by small children, who can choke on them.
- Toys that are broken or poorly constructed—Often, cheap toys are missing parts or otherwise present safety issues.
- Toys with sharp edges—Those edges may be metal, plastic, wooden, or even paper/cardboard, but can cause serious lacerations and even eye damage.
- Toys with ropes, cables, or cords—Such toys present a real risk of strangulation, not only for children but for pets as well. Avoid any toy that has a cord more than a foot long.
- Toys with batteries—When a toy requires batteries, the battery compartment may be easy to open, allowing children to remove batteries and swallow them. In addition, the batteries can leak and cause burns.
- Toys with magnets—These are also easily ingested and can lead to serious health issues.
- Chemistry sets—Some sets can pose a risk of toxicity or burns if not properly used or supervised.
Other Common Holiday Product Liability Claims
Another significant source of injury around the holidays involves dangerous or defective decorations:
- Many inexpensive ornaments are made of glass or unsafe plastic, which can shatter and cause serious injury.
- Poorly manufactured holiday lights may have wiring defects, posing a risk of exposure to electrical current, or even a risk of fire.
- Though most tinsel today is made from materials that are not highly flammable, some cheap products can pose a serious risk of fire.
- Some of the bulbs on inexpensive strings of lights generate a lot of heat and can cause a fire on a dry, live tree.
- Space heaters near holiday decorations can be dangerous.
Different Types of Product Liability Claims
Product liability claims generally take one of three forms:
- Design defect—Failure to consider that a product is designed in a way that could pose a risk of injury to users of the product
- Manufacturing defect—Problems in the assembly, construction, fabrication, or manufacture of a product, including substandard materials, missing parts, and other mistakes
- Negligent marketing—Failure to reasonably warn of the dangers of a product or of known hazards tied to the product
Contact the Aggressive Product Liability Attorneys at Bailey & Galyen
At the law offices of Bailey & Galyen, we offer more than 40 years of experience to people across Texas who suffer any type of personal injury. We will aggressively advocate for you at every stage of a personal injury lawsuit, from the filing of your claim and investigation of the facts through settlement or trial, if necessary. In our decades in practice, we have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements for clients in Texas and nationwide. Contact us by e-mail or call our offices at one of the convenient locations listed below. Our phones are answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
