Supermarket sued over badly assembled bike

12 Jun 2008

Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, is being sued by an American woman for improperly assembling a bicycle resulting in serious injuries to her 13 year old son.

According to the news article (link here) the woman purchased the bike for her son from a local Wal-Mart store. The legal case claims staff at the store failed to assemble the bike correctly and as a result the handlebars detached from the bike during the boy's first ride. He was thrown to the ground seriously injuring his shoulder.

Although the case itself is still to be proved it is a good example of why parents need to be investing in their children's bikes. Buying cheap bikes in boxes from supermarkets cheapens children, undermines the pleasure of bike riding and could result in safety issues.

Supermarkets are not the best place to be buying bikes. Sure they are cheap but there's a reason for that. They are poor quality and not assembled by trained specialist staff. The person assembling your bike could very well have been stacking baked beans before he served you.

If you walk out of your local supermarket with a bike in a box then its up to you to assemble that bike and take responsibility for your child's safety.

If its cheap it probably won't survive the abuse an active teenager can throw at it. So not only are there the safety issues to consider, it's also not very economical in the longer term because you might find you're replacing or repairing bikes regularly.

Read our article on "Bicycle Shaped Objects" to find out more

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