Next somebody will be suing GE for making microwave ovens.

2nd degree burns. The parent claimed (on CNN video) that skin was hanging off the child’s feet when picked up seconds after the screaming started. Video of the feet showed lotsd of skin missing. It’s pretty gruesome.

That being said, this is New York City. Wear shoes. Put shoes on your child.

Of course the Complaints will say that “[t]he Plaintiff was rendered sick sore and lame and aflicted with permanent disabilities arising from and proximately caused by the negligence of the Defendant(s) and defects in the mats and their installation.”

I’ve walked on blacktop surfaces barefoot at high noon in the summer in New York. No injury ensued, but it was uncomfortable and hurt slightly while I was Ghandi dancing (whoops not so politically correct) across the parking lot at the beach. In Alcapulco in the summertime, however, the pavement was hot enough so that I would not run barefoot across the street to the beach. Still, I don’t think I would have been injured if I did so.

If the mats truly caused serious injury, i.e. partial or full thickness burns, with normal use, then someone is probably negligent and should be held monitarily liable. The law needs a threshold for the seriousness of injury that one may sue for.

How about car interiors or children’s car seats? They must get hot to the touch after sitting in the sun all day when your car is parked. I remember getting burned by the metal seat belt buckle in my parents’ old Dodge Dart.

And you still might trip on a white one when blinded by the glare.

Perhaps a warning sign: All human activity carries some risk of injury. Abandon hope all ye…

Heh.