I agree, but I also recognize that like it or not, companies have a long tried and true history of only doing things when economics or laws FORCE them to... the age of the Christian CEO is long over (if it ever existed).
Lawsuits cost money, whether they are right or wrong.... without the threat of having to deal with lawsuits complacency and a base depreciation on human life occurs by companies... what is a preventable death if there is no cost to us?
I don't believe the company will be found guilty in this case, although if the washer did indeed malfunction and start without money in it, that's a flaw that certainly was a contributing factor.
Hopefully, this little girls death will, whether we agree on the lawsuit or not, bring about changes to these machines so that no ones child winds up dying preventably in them in the future.
I know as a general rule of thumb, engineers should assume that any device that closes and latches that the possibility that a person could become trapped inside.