“dump raw gasoline onto a burning BBQ grill or into a fireplace?”
Anybody that stupid should be legally barred from filing such a lawsuit, in every state, county, and city in the USA
In fact, they should be legally barred from procreating, since they clearly don’t have anything worthy to contribute to our gene pool
Sadly, some people don’t have half the brains God gives glass geese. Like the guy around here some years back who finished out his basement with a hardwood floor and decided to varnish the wood near the lit pilot light of the water heater. Not a tidy ending.
I have been following this thread for a while, biting my keyboard as I moved on without throwing in my somewhat crass opinion on the fool proofing of gas cans and various other consumer products. But now, before I break another tooth, I must add my 2c worth. How is it that as we in America become so much more intelligent and more well informed we need more nannies to protect us? Dead man switches on lawn mowers, switches that prevent starting until the clutch is depressed, and gas cans that require wearing bi-focals to read an instructions manual to operate go waaaaaay beyond good common sense in preventing accidents. Let the Darwyn Awards be presented to the deserving. I don’t wish to cheat anyone out of their just rewards.
Next you will be saying you don’t need a federally required sticker on your ladder telling you that falling off can cause injury or death.
Like anytbing else, the gas can business will no doubt lead to improved gas cans and we won’t give them a second thought. When I think about the deadman controls on a lawnmower, I thought they would be a pain. I hesitated to buy a new mower back in the late 1980s because my old fashioned mower did not have the deadman controls. When my old mower finally died, I considered getting a mower with a.blade clutch, but decided not to spend the extra money. The enjines with the electronic ignition start so easily that the blade clutch isn’t necessary.
We are all products of our cultures. In the USA, our culture for many years has said you are not responsible for your own safety. If you get hurt, someone is responsible and must pay. So, we don’t even watch where we are walking any more.
In Mexico City, you will see large holes dug into the sidewalk, and no snow fencing to keep you from falling in. So you are used to looking where you are walking.
I’m not exactly sure when it started but has something to do with helicopter parents. Everyone must be protected from any possibility of injury, period, and the government will see to it that you are protected whether you like it or not. (And yes I read the preliminary report for Minnesota that would have done just that so its not like I’m nuts.)
As far as the deadman controls, I just use a wire tie on the handle to keep the thing running. I have to replace the wire tie once in a while though since someone does not like my defeating the mandated controls.
Triedaq, these ARE the improved gas cans!
RE those dead man switches, Once the cooling shroud is removed that switch and flywheel brake contraption can be removed in less than a minute and a 3 inch length of pipe hanger strap under one of the shroud bolts works great to ground out the plug. Life can be so simple sometimes.
Like @“MG McAnick” I use my grandfather’s jerry cans and I have a few circa 1988 vented gas cans as well. The new ones are a bad joke.
@db4690 Some of those lawsuits (along with injuries and deaths) were due to just that; dumping raw gas on open flames.
Here’s a cut and paste on one of many. If anyone should be in court it’s the father who should be charged with negligent homicide. Even the way the story is worded is not correct. The can did not explode; it was the gas…
A Utah jury awarded more than $4 million to the father of a 2-year-old girl killed when a Blitz can exploded after the father, David Calder, tried to start a fire in a wood-burning stove in his trailer home by pouring gasoline on the flame.
And for those too young to recall, the deadman switch on lawn mowers was the result of a lawsuit made by a man who wanted to give his hedges a “flat top” using his lawn mower. He fired up the engine and attempted to lift it with his fingers wrapped under the deck.
I once served on a jury. We heard 4 cases that were quite outrageous and I’m proud to say that all four were dismissed when the plaintiffs’ lawyers recognized that the jury was not impressed with the outrageous complaints.
I have never heard the one about the mower and hedge trimming. It’s amazing to me that someone could fire up a mower and spend even one second considering poking their fingers underneath the deck.
In the case of the guy in UT who collected on the gas can fire what should have happened is that he should have saved that 2 year old or died trying and should have been charged with negligent homicide.
Spontaneous combustion from gas or not there was enough time to get that child out the doorway or by knocking out a window. Pure scum to adopt an every man for himself attitude and the jury in that case not much better by rewarding him for causing the death of his child.
The guy who tried to cut his hedge with his rotary mower lived in the Buffalo area, it was in our local paper at the time. He was also quite intoxicated. Didn’t hear about the lawsuit though. Of course, I spent a lot of time out on the road.
I’m surprised the death toll is not way higher; all things considered.
About a dozen years ago 2 guys decided to steal gasoline from all of the vehicles in a barn from a farmer who lives near me when they found no one at home. One of the vehicles inside the barn was a bobtail truck with saddle tanks.
At some point during the gas theft one of these guys in the darkened barn decided to see how much gas was left in the saddle tanks and fired up a cigarette lighter for a look in the tank…
The ensuing flash burned both of them and also burned the barn down. The property loss was estimated at 200 grand as it included the barn, the bobtail, a late model pickup, several ATVs, and the worst part of all; a '67 Corvette 427 Roadster.
Both were caught and charged with second degree arson when a friend of theirs saw the burns on the arms and put 2 and 2 together after seeing a bit in the local paper about the fire.
(With tongue stuck firmly in cheek) @ok4450, did the idiots sue the farmer for enticing them to commit the crime? After all, he left that extremely unsafe truck unattended.
And it was probably a diesel to boot…
I learned at an early age not to put your fingers under the deck of a mower. When we were kids we were trying to start a mower at the neighbors. It was running a little and one of the kids grabbed under the deck to lift it up to look at the blade. His middle finger came up all bloody as he ran off home yelling “Ma”.
When I had to discuss the binary and hexadecimal systems in my computer science classes, I asked them why man used the decimal system. If I didn’t get a response, I would then ask “Suppose the rotary power lawnmower had been invented before the numeration system was devised. What base would we be using today?”. We would probably be using a base 9 system. After the rotary mower came out in the 1930s, apparently enough people stuck their fingers under the mower to see if it was running that we had to have the engine kill and blade brake deadman control.
Base 9? Had me going there.
Unfortunately, Rod, many states don’t require jury trials in tort cases.
It’s sad that our tort law system overall is so screwed up that we could fill volume upon volume with stupid cases… and that’s if we only used the ones where the plaintiff prevailed. In the old days at least we had Johnny Carson to expose their stupidity to the world. Now we got nothin’.