OT: Takata airbags

Coffee being hot is an accepted and understood danger by everyone who engages with businesses selling hot coffee.

Steering wheels shooting metal fragments is certainly not.

Not anywhere close to a valid comparison, and you know it.

Coffee being hot is a natural characteristic of coffee and everyone who drinks it accepts this. Metal fragments being fired out of airbags is not a natural characteristic of airbags.

And the woman who won that McDonalds hot coffee lawsuit was correct to sue, and they were correct in awarding her the damages she received. Because the restaurant in question was absolutely negligent in serving her coffee that was well outside the bounds of what anyone would consider normal "hot coffee" temperature.

See how this whole "liability" thing works?

Sure, if it is only six deaths out of 33 million cars, why do the recall at all? Just pay the few million from the handful of lawsuits you can't crush with a pack of lawyers. That is a much better solution.

coffee is brewed at ~95'C , so you can't serve fresh coffee?

-Lasse

You can serve it, but it is damn hard to drink.

It isn't served that hot. Plus they put it in a styrofoam cup, which was on the edge of melting itself, and handed it to her directly over her lap. Plus the overly hot coffee was a corporate standard, with documentation produced in evidence.

It really was gross negligence, and the injury was pretty serious--third degree scalding to legs, stomach, and girl bits. :( I don't know if she ever fully recovered.

That case is often cite as an example of what's wrong with the US tort system, but if you look at the actual details, it's actually an example of what's right with it.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

This is not the sort of discussion you can have in this group because there are so many people who want to believe what they believe regardless of the facts.

Sure, the lady needed to take some responsibility because she certainly was taking a risk in not using a cup holder. The point is that she had no expectation that she was risking more than some pain. I would not expect such serious burns from a cup of coffee either and McDonalds had received many complaints about similar incidents, so they clearly knew of the hazard.

If you wish to discuss what is wrong with the tort system.... my personal complaint is the ubiquitous nature of indemnification in virtually all electronic agreements. I am going to visit my bank tomorrow and give them an earful. I have been using online banking for years and I was just presented with a user agreement which I must accept to access the bill pay. It says I must indemnify them "from any loss".... related to my "use of the Site or the Service".

Next my insurance company will require me to indemnify them against having to pay out on claims!

Arguably "getting injured, with a risk of death" /is/ a natural characteristic of car crashes. The broken airbags are just adjusting the details somewhat (would you rather hit your head on the steering wheel, or have bits of the steering wheel fly out at your head?), and very marginally increasing the risks.

Ultimately, the manufacturers can only do their best to replace the airbags gradually. It will take some time to produce replacements for all their deliveries over the last ten years or so - no quantity of complaints or threats will change that reality.

No, that can only be changed by action of the air bag makers. I am pretty confident that if their sales increased in the same way, they would add production capability.

On Tue, 11 Aug 2015 13:35:55 -0400, bitrex Gave us:

Being oblivious to this recall or the reason for it, however is. Ooops.... you lost that one.

On Tue, 11 Aug 2015 13:43:39 -0400, bitrex Gave us:

Only when driving a car you know has been recalled for that reason. DOH!

On Tue, 11 Aug 2015 13:47:22 -0400, bitrex Gave us:

You are completely full of shit.

On Tue, 11 Aug 2015 11:19:19 -0700 (PDT), Lasse Langwadt Christensen Gave us:

He is a wussified idiot.

On Tue, 11 Aug 2015 14:23:12 -0400, rickman Gave us:

One does not DRINK freshly served coffee. One SIPS freshly served coffee.

On Tue, 11 Aug 2015 14:31:31 -0400, Phil Hobbs Gave us:

condition, and therefore it was NOT served to her even at boiling temp, because processing and dispensation into even a styrofoam cup takes the temp even lower than that. There is no such 'cups melting' from boiling

My coffee gets made directly from still boiling water directly into a french press and gets put into a preheated (By microwaved boiling water) ceramic coffee cup. As I dump that water, it boils as it hits the sink, because a microwave actually CAN take the temp above boiling. So I KNOW the cup is hot, and the coffee is as hot as it gets.

The bitch lied and you dopes fell for it.

Oh and water scalding yields second degree burns not third.

Give it up.

Sheesh.

Last year I replaced the heater fan in SWMBO's SUV, a task that involved removing the accelerator pedal (not such a big deal, it just operated sensor), brake pedal and the **steering wheel** (thanks, Nissan). The fan was still working (a bit noisy) but the MOSFET PWM for the fan had failed on so there was only full speed and off (just opened the module and replaced the MOSFET with a beefier one for a few dollars).

The *inside* of the steering wheel centre/airbag assembly was festooned with dire warning labels. Nothing on the outside where it was pointed at the driver's chest , of course.

--sp

On Tue, 11 Aug 2015 15:22:48 -0400, rickman Gave us:

Go look in a mirror, dipshit.

On Tue, 11 Aug 2015 15:22:48 -0400, rickman Gave us:

Try it in Israel. It take ten years for it to even end up in a courtroom.