Oh, please

I see that a bunch of Camaros are being recalled because their airbag warning stickers may peel off. According to NHTSA, "If the airbag warning label detaches from the visor, the driver and front seat passenger may not be warned of the risks of airbag deployment, increasing the risk of injury in the event of a crash."

This reminds me of the comedian who portrayed someone in the 16th row of an airplane watching the flight attendant's standard safety demonstration and thinking, "Holy Mother of God, so THAT'S how you put on a seat belt!"

In a week that brought us depressing news about Toyota's DbW software issues, I don't want to be too satirical about safety standards, but I honestly can't see the increased risk of injury in a Camaro with a semi-detached or even fully detached airbag warning label.

Unless, of course, it falls off while the driver is pulling into a supermarket parking lot. Oh, the humanity!

Come on, NHTSA. Back to your real jobs.

Easy to remove airbag stickers? That sounds like a feature to me.

Reminds of the Top Gear episode with the previous gen Viper where CLarkson when for the absurd number of warning labels in it, including an entire one about rear seats as he dismayingly pointed to the bulkhead.

People can be shockingly dumb about these things. I knew a woman who thought the airbag was in the sun visor because that's where the warning sticker was.

I remember my very last engineering professor making a really big deal about how you can pretty much never assume that a potential customer won't do the complete opposite of every reasonable thing someone might try to do with your products. He ran a company that specialized in being expert witnesses in these kinds of lawsuits. An example he gave was a guy that cut his fingers off trying to hold a push lawnmower by the deck to trim his hedge.

In summation, most people are preposterously stupid.

You don't have to be dumb, or even bother to read the sticker. This is Murica, if that sticker is missing and the airbag goes off all I have to do is look stupid and say I didn't know it would hurt me. My lawyer will take care of the rest.

I could never pull them stickers off. Maybe just a bad batch of adhesive.

i ripped my mattress tag off

plance1 wrote: i ripped my mattress tag off

Blasphemy!

I'll just leave this here. It seems appropriate.

DeadSkunk wrote: You don't have to be dumb, or even bother to read the sticker. This is Murica, if that sticker is missing and the airbag goes off all I have to do is look stupid and say I didn't know it would hurt me. My lawyer will take care of the rest.

Ya that's worth a couple of Million at least. Sorry GM who knew air bags go off upon impact?

LainfordExpress wrote: I remember my very last engineering professor making a really big deal about how you can pretty much never assume that a potential customer won't do the complete opposite of every reasonable thing someone might try to do with your products. He ran a company that specialized in being expert witnesses in these kinds of lawsuits. An example he gave was a guy that cut his fingers off trying to hold a push lawnmower by the deck to trim his hedge. In summation, most people are preposterously stupid.

We covered that in my Business Law class at TAMU, about 20 years ago. That required a new warning to not cut the hedges with your power mower. There was also a case covered regarding those all-in-one ladder-bench-everything tools. The company that made it put together a huge booklet of things not to do. It was like 20 pages or more of "don't do this." Someone did one of those things, got hurt, sued them and won because the booklet of stuff not to do was so big that no one would look at it.

Yeah, didn't he know about the handles on the side of the mower? Oh wait........

Can't fix stupid.

The culture of victimization in this country never ceases to amaze me. Used to be people were expected to use common sense and to accept the consequences of stupid things they might do. Now doing something dumb is like a winning lottery ticket.

Or they want someone else to fix the results of their poor decisions. I recently had a customer with a 2012 Challenger who, by her own admission, drove into deep water and promptly locked the engine up. Her 'reasoning': Chrysler should be able to understand that might happen and put the air intake higher than 14" off the ground, which is roughly the same height as the center of the wheels, thus it should be covered under warranty. Heh. Good luck with that. The insurance claim was $8000, she had a $1000 deductible which she demanded that we pay. Um, nope. Had to endure several ranting screaming phone calls, two screaming in my face incidents one of which ended only when she was threatened with a call to the local PD. Her parting shot: 'I don't like driving a car I can't drive in the rain.'

A while back Overlawyered.com did a bit on a guy in Pennsylvania? who got drunk, was staggering home and passed a power company substation. Our hero climbs the fence, starts wandering around inside and of course gets a nasty burn. So what does he do? Finds a lawyer who sues the bar for not cutting him off and the power company for not doing more to keep him out.

Then there was the kid in Orlando who was jumping between parking garages, fell and seriously injured himself, then sues the city for not doing more to keep him out. Link to the original story:

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2005-01-01/news/0501010203_1_bargfrede-downtown-orlando-orlando-regional-medical

http://overlawyered.com/?s=bargfrede+parking

Oh, yeah. Let's not forget this gem:

No warning that PVC may cause cancer?

My parents knew someone who put a plastic artificial fireplace in their apartment and burned artificial logs in it. They won the law suit after burning the apartment down. This was back in the 70s.

Fast food nation combined with entitlement. Its going to keep going until someone finally says "NO"

I was in a head shop a while back (I plead the fifth) and I saw a sign that says, all sales final. Makes sense, you don't want people returning water pipes for tobacco and other sundry items that have been all used and drooled on and whatnot. The people working there were actually REALLY friendly- like it was one of the best customer service experiences I've ever had. HEAR THAT UNCLE SAM? STONERS ARE HELLA FRIENDLY! Anyhow- I was being rung up and the girl started with the "Just to let you know, all sales are" and I cut her off and finished with "Final- any product defects are handled by the manufacturer, in this case it's Vapir"... She stood wide-eyed like she'd seen a ghost. I says to her "Yeah, I read the sign, makes total sense". Apparently she'd never heard of someone actually reading the GIGANTIC berkeleyING SIGN ON THE REGISTER. This bothers me a great deal. I know my airbags deploying is going to suck. I know coffee is hot. I know you don't return certain things. I feel like people need to be held accountable for their own ignorance.

LainfordExpress wrote: I remember my very last engineering professor making a really big deal about how you can pretty much never assume that a potential customer won't do the complete opposite of every reasonable thing someone might try to do with your products. He ran a company that specialized in being expert witnesses in these kinds of lawsuits. An example he gave was a guy that cut his fingers off trying to hold a push lawnmower by the deck to trim his hedge. In summation, most people are preposterously stupid.

This.. Totally. Completely. Absolutely.

Problem is that all of us on here actually have and tend to use our brains.

Stuff like this http://www.nhtsa.gov/PR/NHTSA-17-10 is downright shameful if we all need it. Hell, its shameful if anyone with a drivers license needs it. Thing to remember about NHTSA is that they have to do what congress tells them, congress tells them to do what vocal constituents (or companies with money) tell them to.

Requiring backup cameras is dumb and absurd. Have a feeling its gonna happen anyways.

more proof of why its coming http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2013/09/25/backup-cameras-dot-lawsuit-gulbransen-obama-administration/2870819/

Shameful..

It's a chicken/egg paradox. Is it people not paying attention leading to the safety feature or is the safety feature leading people to not pay attention and rely on the car to prevent an accident.

Hearing stuff like this just blows my mind. I dont understand why people seem to think everything needs a warning label. It really bothers me with cars. Yes they are dangerous but you accspt that risk when you get in one to go anywhere. We shouldnt have to spell out every little detail of what could go wrong just to avoid lawsuits.

You guys have it wrong. The problem is not with the idiots responsible for this non-sense. Or their lawyers. The problems is the judges. Those are supposed to be highly-competent people in charge of keeping the legal system to a high standard. A judge could have stopped all this madness a long time ago by simply saying "You're an idiot, get out of my court. Case dismissed."

Apexcarver wrote:

LainfordExpress wrote: I remember my very last engineering professor making a really big deal about how you can pretty much never assume that a potential customer won't do the complete opposite of every reasonable thing someone might try to do with your products. He ran a company that specialized in being expert witnesses in these kinds of lawsuits. An example he gave was a guy that cut his fingers off trying to hold a push lawnmower by the deck to trim his hedge. In summation, most people are preposterously stupid.

This.. Totally. Completely. Absolutely. Problem is that all of us on here actually have and tend to use our brains. Stuff like this http://www.nhtsa.gov/PR/NHTSA-17-10 is downright shameful if we all need it. Hell, its shameful if anyone with a drivers license needs it. Thing to remember about NHTSA is that they have to do what congress tells them, congress tells them to do what vocal constituents (or companies with money) tell them to. Requiring backup cameras is dumb and absurd. Have a feeling its gonna happen anyways. more proof of why its coming http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2013/09/25/backup-cameras-dot-lawsuit-gulbransen-obama-administration/2870819/ Shameful..

Oh yes backup cameras are definitely going to be required. That's already a given with us here in the biz.