Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch (M-LAW) is out with its latest annual Wacky Warning Label awards. “Danger: Avoid Death” appeared on a small tractor, while second place went to one in a longtime favorite genre of ours, the do-not-iron-garments-while-wearing warning. Third place? A “label on a baby stroller featuring a small storage pouch that warns: ‘Do not put child in bag.'” Also important to know: “The Vanishing Fabric Marker should not be used as a writing instrument for signing checks or any legal documents.” (Ron Vample, “‘Avoid Death’ is wacky warning winner”, AP/USA Today, Dec. 12). Coverage of earlier years: 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, earlier.
“Danger: Avoid Death”
Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch (M-LAW) is out with its latest annual Wacky Warning Label awards. “Danger: Avoid Death” appeared on a small tractor, while second place went to one in a longtime favorite genre of ours, the do-not-iron-garments-while-wearing warning. Third place? A “label on a baby stroller featuring a small storage pouch that warns: ‘Do […]
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Warning Labels that work:
A classmate of mine was working as a technician when a new piece of high voltage equipment got installed in the lab. Naturally, as a tech training to be an engineer he just had to open it up to poke around (we can’t help it) The “Caution: High Voltage inside” label got the usual derisive snort–“I’m a technician I know what I’m doing.”
Inside in the middle of everything was a very large transformer with a bold label that read “DEATH IS FINAL!”
He actually stopped and put the cover back in place.
I already e-mailed M-LAW about their contest winner.
I don’t know whether their description of a warning decal on a ‘small tractor’ is deliberately misleading or just the result of ignornace. But it’s not on a ‘small tractor’, it’s on a skid-steer loader, aka a Bobcat, and it warns of a danger specific to that type of machine which is very real and very serious. Just Google ‘skid steer loader accident’ to see what I mean – between all the ads for product-liability attorneys who make a living suing over skid-steer loader accidents, there are many grisly accounts of horrible injuries and fatalities due to the excat hazards that this decal warns about.
Their choice of this warning label as the grand prize winner was a very poor one, and it does the exact opposite of what they are trying to achieve. In trying to make the point that many warning labels are uselss becasue they warn of vanishingly-small hazards or non-existent hazards dreamed up by lawyers, or hazards which could be avoided by the application of the slightest common sense, they managed to pick a warning label that warns of a very real, very serious and non-obvious hazard that has really killed and really maimed hundreds of people. Nice going, there.
Careful of babies and bathwater.
llater,
llamas
The danger if a bobcat loader is very real. Your feet control some of the motion of the machine, and if you lean out to look at something or to try to pick something up, you can inadvertantly activate the foot controls, with bad results.
I don’t care how real the danger is, “Avoid Death” is so generic that it could be slapped on ANYTHING. Even on a dangerous product, that’s still a good warning label to win, just because it’s so ridiculously overbroad as to be useless.
Llamas and the followup poster, who both think this is a good warning label, give us a glimpse into the mindset of the potential juror in a liability case. Nice illustration of where these ridiculous labels come from.