Direct and indirect (holiday) electrical hazards seriously injure thousands of people every year. Cases involving electrocution injuries can be very complex, mostly because so many parties could be legally responsible for these injuries. Laying the proper groundwork and identifying the truly responsible party is very important in these cases. An experienced New York personal injury lawyer knows the statute of limitations might expire before the responsible party can be held accountable in court.
Electrical Hazards
Overloaded home electricity grids are the most common cause of electrocution injuries. Most home power grids weren’t designed for today’s elaborate holiday light displays for example. The capacity lessens as the house ages. Unfortunately, most homeowners don’t downgrade their light displays as the years pass. If anything, they make them more elaborate.
The equipment may be damaged as well. Most people don’t carefully store wires and other electrical equipment during the long off-season. So, when they fish this equipment out of the utility drawer in November, it’s usually in bad shape. Frayed wires and other such issues are very common.
Holiday light displays could also overload a home’s power grid, especially outdoor outlets. These outlets usually have very limited capacities. Many holiday displays are very large and. In many cases, the power runs 24/7.
Displays themselves could be the issue as the parts are manufactured throughout the world. Parts made in different countries don’t always work seamlessly together, especially if they spent weeks on a cargo ship and/or in a warehouse prior to the assembly stage.
Furthermore, many countries don’t have strict consumer protection laws and standards. Products that are considered unsafe in the United States are perfectly safe for sale elsewhere.
Electrocution Injuries
Electrocutions are such serious incidents because they could cause three different types of injuries, any one of which could be fatal.
Sometimes, the power surge that occurs when flesh contacts a live wire causes an arc blast. That blast usually throws victims through the air. These arc blast reactions are especially severe when a victim is electrocuted on a rooftop.
In that situation, a fall straight to the ground usually causes a permanent injury, like a broken bone that never entirely heals. If the victim hits an even harder surface, like a vehicle, the injury is immeasurably worse.
The power surge also causes severe electric shock. This surge often disrupts the electrical rhythms in the body, specifically the heart.
If a relatively mild current of 50 mA passes through the heart, it can cause cardiac arrest. Furthermore, if a current from outside the body passes through the heart, it can mask this organ’s normal electrical impulses and disturb the heart’s rhythm. This irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) can even manifest as a total disorganization of the rhythm (ventricular fibrillation).
When that happens, the heart stops pumping and the blood stops circulating. The victim rapidly loses consciousness and dies if a healthy heartbeat is not restored with a defibrillator. The arrhythmia can occur at the time of the shock, or several hours following the electric shock.
In other cases, the power surge triggers an involuntary muscle contraction (the “no let go” response). As a result, the victim has extended contact with heat that’s hotter than the surface temperature of the sun.
Liability Issues
Usually, a homeowner or a manufacturer is legally responsible for damages in electrocution cases. These damages usually include compensation for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering. Additional punitive damages may be available as well, in some extreme circumstances.
Usually, if the victim was an invitee (permission to visit the light display and some financial or nonfinancial benefit to the owner), the homeowner has a duty of reasonable care to ensure that the property is safe and secure.
At a minimum, this duty includes a responsibility to identify and remove electrocution and other injury hazards.
Homeowners are responsible for injuries if they’re negligent. Generally, product manufacturers are strictly liable for any injuries their defective products cause. The underlying defect could be a:
- Manufacturing Defect: As mentioned, all manufacturers use the cheapest components possible, so they can maximize their profits. If the final product does not safely work as designed, and the product causes injury, the manufacturer must pay damages.
- Design Defect: Some products are dangerous on the drawing board. Examples include a wire without adequate safety wrapping or a light that exceeds the recommended wattage. Generally, these defects are easy to address, but companies refuse to do so, because they believe the fixes are too costly.
Compensation, specifically punitive damages, is usually very high in defective product matters. The punitive damages must be high enough to convince a wayward company to change the way it does business.
For more information and/or a free consultation with an experienced personal injury lawyer in New York, contact Napoli Shkolnik. A knowledgeable team member can provide a no-obligation claims analysis.