Posted on 01/16/2006 3:27:57 AM PST by beaversmom
ROGERSVILLE - The mother of a Rogersville boy who was injured in an accident last year on a new bicycle has filed a $900,000 lawsuit against the bike manufacturer and Wal-Mart, where the bike was purchased.
Elizabeth Burton, 625 S. Armstrong St., Rogersville, is the mother of Eric Burton, who was injured in an accident on Jan. 9, 2005. The boy's sister had received the Roadmaster Mountain Sport bicycle as a Christmas present from their father.
According to the lawsuit filed on behalf of the Burtons by Morristown attorney Gary E. Brewer, on Jan. 9 of last year Eric Burton was riding his sister's new bike on South Armstrong Street, but as he approached the Broadway Street intersection the brakes failed.
The bike didn't stop and continued onto Broadway Street into the path of an oncoming vehicle which had the right of way, the lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit further contends that as a result of the accident Eric Burton was severely injured, was hospitalized and will undergo continuing medical treatment.
Aside from Wal-Mart, the other defendants in the lawsuit include Pacific Cycle, Inc., based in Wilmington, Del., as well as its parent company Dorel Juvenile Group, Inc., which is to be served with the lawsuit in Columbus, Ind.
The lawsuit alleges that Pacific Cycle manufactured the bicycle in a defective condition, making it unsafe. The lawsuit also alleges that Wal-Mart assembled the bicycle.
"The defendant (Wal-Mart) assembled and sold the bicycle in an unsafe condition and design when they knew or should have known by the exercise of ordinary care that the bicycle would be subject to failure," the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit seeks $750,000 for injuries and damages and another $150,000 for medical expenses. The defendants have 30 days from the Jan. 6 filing date of the lawsuit to either file a response or seek a time extension.
Depends on what you mean by upscale. My understanding is that the bike shop I do business with stays in business selling $500 and under bikes. Hardly upscale. There are probably a few more like me who're buying $2000 bikes, and maybe 1 or 2 who buy the truly upscale $5000 and up machines.
That's why I saved up and bought mine at Sam's Club.
Get a kid something like a Specialized P3 or a Fisher Mullet and you have a bike that will survive the wrecks your kids don't.
I am sure you didn't mean it to hurt anyone, but as the mom of a 7yo who got a bike for Christmas, I really cringed at that wording.
Bull****. Even expensive Trek bikes fail. Read this:
------------------------------------------------------- Michael D. Trost, * * * Plaintiff/Appellant, * Appeal from the United * States v. * District Court for the * District of Minnesota. Trek Bicycle Corporation, * * Defendant/Appellee. -------------------------------------------------------Michael Trost purchased a Trek all-terrain bicycle in 1991 and used it regularly until July 25, 1996, when he had the accident that gave rise to this action. He rode the bicycle approximately 35 miles each week during summer and ten miles weekly during winter, when he used chains on the tires to increase their traction. His rides included off-road trails and lasted up to five hours. The accident occurred as Trost was riding home from work along a path in a ditch. Suddenly the front end of the bicycle dropped precipitously. To him it felt as if the front of the bicycle had "dropped into a manhole." He was pitched over the handlebars and "knocked out," and he suffered injuries to his head, neck, and face. Later examination of the bicycle showed that the top tube of the bicycle frame had fractured near the point where it met the front steering tube. Trost claims that this fracture caused the accident.
Trost filed this action against Trek in January 1997, alleging that the bicycle was defective in design, manufacture, and warnings, that the defects caused the accident, and that Trek had breached its warranty.
Oh man. It's really late. I was just trying to say that the bike would be tougher than the kids. I didn't realize that I'd inadvertantly killed the kid in my scenerio. I'm sorry.
Dude, most bikes bought at Walmart are not used to fly down mountain trails at 25 mph. They are used by kids to bike to and from school on sidewalks at 3 or 4 mph.
Comparing a failure that's obviously the product of aluminum fatigue from 5 years of continuous use with crappola is just insane. I mean you did catch that he rode the hell out of this bike for 5 freakin' years before it failed prior to your posting it right? Aluminum frames unlike steel ones have limited life-spans, hence the mountain biking axiom "Steel is Real". This isn't supposed to be a secret.
And you think that's the only time Trek has been sued?
I'm hoping you have some point, and that you're really not trying to convince me that Pacific cycles are of the same quality as Trek, Specialized, C-Dale or any other manufacturer of quality bikes. If that's your goal, you're barking up the wrong tree because I've been riding for way to long to swallow any of it.
The point is to tell you that it is false to believe that an expensive bike will never fail (your words). Quote: "the difference is that I can count on my bikes to not fail me." A more expensive bike may be less likely to fail than a cheap one when used hard, but expensive ones fail too.
I didn't expect anyone to adopt an overly literal reading of my "the difference is that I can count on my bikes to not fail me." and read into it a testament of absolute infallibility. Everything has a potential for failure, but if you have to be rear ended at a light, the smart money is on being in the Volvo and not the Pinto. Likewise, I've diminished the possibility of equipment failure as much as I can by buying quality equipment. It can still fail, but it's not very likely. Quite the contrary for department store bikes, failure under heavy use is expected.
No apology necessary, I understood what you were saying, just the wording was a bit off.
Sut you're right, it is late, so I will wish you a pleasant good night, because I need to get some sleep :)
FReegards
Oh no! Neither one of us ride in the mountains or on rough trails. If we ride it's on a paved country road or at her school. She's only 10 and we don't allow her to ride without me and I don't do trails. :-) We have to ride them because they do better on country roads where you encounter a lot of gravel, etc. One of these days when she learns to treat her things better I'll get her a better bike but right now we have to keep after her about putting it up, etc. If we didn't make her bring it in it would be on it's side in the yard. Granny does not do bike trails! :-)
I see old Schwinns occasionally at flea markets but they are usually in bad shape at a big price. If I ever run up on one in decent shape I might buy it.
Re-read what I said. Sure, bike shops "do" do that kind of thing, but that's not where they make their major income. The major income is from the "new sale" of upscale bikes.
"Perhaps "upscale" may describe your big city version of it. I'm talking small town america - you know, where Walmart has drivin the mom and pop businesses into the ground.."
Gee, it's a funny thing, then, because I can go into the bike shop in the small town (pop ca 10,000) that is closest to the RURAL location where I live, and find exactly the situation I described.
I'm talking about bikes in the $199 and up range, as opposed to the $59 to $199 bikes that are sold by Sears, Penneys, WalMart, etc. Its a different market segment. They don't compete "head to head".
"Aluminum frames unlike steel ones have limited life-spans, hence the mountain biking axiom "Steel is Real"."
This is mostly correct. Except that even steel has a life span but it is much longer than aluminum. And, GENERALLY, steel does not have catastrophic failure. Back in the day when ALL race quality bikes were made of Columbus SL (or later SLX) tubing or Reynolds 531c or 753 tubing, all of these being steel, we road them until they began to "flex out", meaning that that thousands of miles of honking up hills had caused the steel tubing to become more maleable abd bend easier. At that time we knew we needed to get a new frame. Unless, of course, your team sponsor was nice enough to give you a new frame every year.
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