Category: Construction, Engineering, Landscape Architecture Injuries and Damages from Landscape Construction Negligence and Defects: Irrigation Systems TASA ID: 3447 A tired executive returns home in the evening from a long day at work. While walking along the pathway to the front door, he trips over a sprinkler head in the adjacent planter bed, loses his balance and falls awkwardly, breaking his neck and suffering paralysis from the neck down. Read more
Category: Construction, Engineering, Resources for Attorneys Forensic Engineering - A Brief Description TASA ID: 4541 Something goes wrong and there is a perceived failure. First question, what? Second question, what is wrong? When the “something” or the “wrong” involves technical issues, a forensic engineer may be engaged to answer the question. This brief introduction addresses forensic engineering as it relates to building issues. Read more
Category: Engineering, Product Liability, Safety Investigating Product Failure: Understanding the Development of a New Product TASA ID: 79 Unlike Athena, a new product does not spring, fully formed, from the brow of the Vice President of Marketing. Most likely it arrives prematurely and requires heroic efforts just to survive. Usually, but not always, its problems and weaknesses will have been resolved by the time it's released for sale: The operative phrase being "Usually, but not always." Read more
Category: Engineering, Product Liability, Safety Human Factors Focus on Warnings, Part l: Labels, Signs, and Tags TASA ID: 568 Failure to warn has become a common cause of action in products liability and tort litigation. Over the past 15 years, much scientific research has been conducted on the subjects of warning design and effectiveness. As discussed here, a warning is a label, sign, or tag used to communicate hazard information. (Note: Part II, a sequel, will discuss visual and auditory warning devices and alarms.) The purpose of a warning is to modify human behavior and ensure safety compliance, i.e. to give the worker or user an opportunity to avoid harm. Read more
Category: Engineering, Safety Things the Robot Safety Engineer Will Learn in Legal Depositions Now That the ISO 10218 Document Is Adopted by ANSI (The Primacy of OSHA over ISO is settled in an Ohio Court) TASA ID: 3199 America is different from all other industrial nations due to the unique American system of justice. Any company who attempts to manufacture products and systems in America must be mindful of this significant difference. To ignore the difference is imprudent and not advised. In the unique American civil justice system the use of the advocate system, trial by jury, the lack of a ‘loser pays’ process and the presence of the Occupation Safety and Health Administration sets the US apart from the rest of the industrialized world. Bluntly put: America is truly different from the rest of the world in industrial safety and our track record of safety success speaks for itself. Read more
