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Exercise equipment helps many people stay in shape without needing access to much space. Without much thought, however, equipment users put their faith in a lot of different people, including the manufacturer of the equipment, and if they are at a gym, the gym’s staff. In the blink of an eye, a user can be injured on a treadmill or injured on a spin bike, in which case a New Mexico injury lawyer may be necessary.
If you or a loved one has been injured in an exercise equipment-related accident, call Zinda Law Group at (800) 863-5312 and ask for a free case evaluation with one of our personal injury attorneys.
causes of exercise equipment injuries
Accidents involving exercise equipment can be caused by more than just the inexperience of the person using the equipment. They can happen through no fault of the user at all, as a matter of fact. The exact circumstances of the accident that led to your injuries will impact whether you are eligible to receive compensation; they will also determine the best strategies to pursue it.
Defective Gym Equipment
Defective gym equipment can cause all kinds of injuries. For one, if the equipment is constructed with cheap materials that aren’t rated to carry the kinds of loads that they are handling during the course of a workout, then equipment users can be put in a very precarious situation. Dangerous situations can also come about if there was a defect in the manufacturing process, a defect in the design of the machine, or if the machine is simply getting old and its components were wearing out.
Improper Maintenance
The proper maintenance schedule for a given machine will depend upon its design, its age, and the frequency of use. For example, a machine that is in a high-traffic area of a popular gym will likely need to be serviced more often than the treadmill in your basement. Regardless of what the appropriate maintenance looks like for a given gym machine, it is the responsibility of the gym to make sure that its employees follow it. If their failure to do so results in an injury, then it is possible that the gym could be held liable.
Negligent Trainers
Injuries can be caused by an overeager trainer whose program may be a bit too ambitious for their clients. Injuries can also result from the hiring of a trainer who doesn’t have the proper certification or is otherwise unqualified to be working with clients. In the case of an injury that results from the irresponsibility of a trainer, it might be possible to hold the trainer or their employer liable for your injuries.
what is products liability?
Generally speaking, products liability is an area of personal injury law that holds producers liable for placing defective products into the hands of consumers. Injuries stemming from exercise equipment will likely fall into this broad category. Within the broad umbrella of products liability law, there are a few more narrow categories of accidents that a Santa Fe personal injury lawyer can help you sort out given the unique circumstances surrounding your own accident.
Design Defect
In cases involving design defects, the allegation of negligence stems from a flaw in the design of the product. In these cases, the piece of equipment likely was made exactly according to plan, but the issue is with that plan itself. For example, if the design of a treadmill led to a high risk of it suddenly stopping without notice and throwing whomever happened to be running forward, the producer of that treadmill might be held liable on the basis of a design defect.
Manufacturing Defect
As opposed to design defects, manufacturing defects result when a piece of equipment is not made according to its design due to some error along the process of production. An example of a manufacturing defect that might lead to an accident would be a spin bike that is missing some critical fasteners that hold the bike together, leading it to fall apart when someone sits on it to ride it. It isn’t necessarily crucial to be able to show why or how the defect occurred, but rather that the producer actually did put out a defective product.
Failure to Warn
When producers create a product that presents some dangers when used in a typical way—that is, how someone might foreseeably use it—then they have a responsibility to provide adequate warnings of those dangers. For example, if a treadmill is not intended to be used above certain speeds or by users above a certain weight, these warnings should be displayed prominently on the equipment. If a failure to warn of foreseeable dangers causes an injury, a producer could be liable even if the equipment was designed and working as intended at the time of the accident.
