truthteller
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I think you all should read this! There are many facts that were left out of the story in the Tulsa World. The following article will be found at morelaw.com, and may paint a different picture.
Description: The Plaintiffs alleged that the Pacific Cycle Defendants had imported and
placed into the stream of commerce a bicycle that was inherently
defective and dangerous due to a defective front fender tab, which had
broken within the first week Plaintiff used the bike. On August 2,
2006, the Plaintiff was riding his Pacific Cycle bike, which had been
retrofitted with a 48 cc motor by an EBay seller, Wonderful Creations,
Inc. As he was proceeding to work on the morning of August 2, 2006, he
heard a snap or pop and then was propelled over his handlebars onto the
pavement. The Plaintiff suffered serious injuries to his shoulder and
left wrist, which required a total of five surgeries over the next two
to three years. He had medical expenses of $74,034.29, and he and his
wife had lost wages from their jobs with the City of Tulsa in the amount
of $25,442.77, which were not disputed at trial. The Plaintiffs also
sought and were awarded by the jury additional sums of money for mental
and physical pain and suffering, some slight permanent disability in the
left wrist, slight disfigurement from scars, and deformity from a broken
collar bone sustained in the accident, as well as the wife's stress and
mental anguish associated with her husband's injuries and medical
treatment. The case was presided over by U.S. District Court Judge
Gregory Frizzell.
The Plaintiffs presented testimony from William Coleman with
Analytical & Materials Engineering located in Norman, Oklahoma, that the
front fender bracket was inherently defective and dangerous, either as a
result of some bending and stresses that had been put on the fender
bracket that broke during its manufacturing process in China, or that
it simply was not a thick enough piece of metal. The Plaintiffs also
presented evidence that Pacific Cycle imports over a million bicycles a
year in the U.S. from manufacturing plants in Taiwan and China, making
them the largest importers of bicycles into the U.S. The Plaintiffs
presented evidence that Pacific Cycle had no independent engineering or
testing departments to check the safety and quality of their bikes.
Testimony was that the bike frame and fork was manufactured by a plant
in China, which Pacific Cycle claimed did safety testing and quality
control, but Pacific Cycle was unable to present any documentation to
support that claim. The fender and fender bracket were manufactured by
a different vendor also in China, but Pacific Cycle was unable to even
identify the specific vendor who had manufactured the fender and fender
bracket, and thus, was unable to present any documentation showing that
there was any safety testing or quality control done with regard to the
manufacturing of the fender bracket. Evidence was also presented by the
Plaintiffs that although Pacific Cycle imports approximately 200
different models of bikes into the U.S. market, they have one generic
manual, which is placed in the box in the Chinese and Taiwan plants, and
that manual showed two L brackets in the fender diagram, as opposed to a
single bracket, which was on the bike the Plaintiff was riding, and that
the manual contained no information regarding assembling or tightening
of the fender stays on the bike, which the Pacific Cycle expert, David
Mitchell, claimed may have not been properly tightened by the Plaintiff
when he put the fender on the bike after receiving it from Wonderful
Creations, and may have contributed to the accident.
Pacific Cycle's primary defense to the case was that the
subsequent modification of the bicycle by the EBay seller, Wonderful
Creations, had rendered the bicycle no longer a "bicycle" and that the
vibration of the motor, which had been bolted to the bike frame, had
caused a fatigue fracture of the bracket on the fender. The Pacific
Cycle corporate representative claimed that Pacific Cycle had no
knowledge that people in the United States were making after market
modifications to its bikes by putting motors on them, but the corporate
representative admitted that he had made no efforts such as sending out
an e-mail within the company or a survey to find out if this alleged
lack of knowledge of the after market modification was truly unknown by
all of the employees within the company. The Plaintiff testified that
at the time he decided to purchase a motorized bike that there were
numerous listings on EBay, both for bikes that had already been
retrofitted with the motor from numerous EBay sellers, as well as kits
from which one could install the after market motor themselves. Pacific
Cycle presented testimony from David Mitchell, an engineer from Georgia
and volunteer Olympic bicycle mechanic, who testified that although he
had done no scientific testing and had only examined the bike for
approximately an hour, that the vibration of the motor was an
unforeseeable modification to the bike and in fact had changed the bike
to where it no longer met the definition of a "bicycle", which has to be
solely humanly powered. Mr. Mitchell who does some independent
engineering and testing for other bike companies testified that Pacific
Cycle had their own engineering and testing department, which was
contrary to the Pacific Cycle corporate representative's testimony. Mr.
Mitchell said that Pacific Cycle did not ever hire him to do work on the
front end in testing or designing for products before they went to
market, but did hire him after people make claims of defective products
resulting in Pacific Cycle bike accidents to do forensic work, and that
he had testified at least 20 times at trial or deposition on Pacific
Cycle's behalf over the last four or five years. Mr. Mitchell claimed
that there have not been other reports of fender brackets breaking and
causing accidents, although he admitted that he had done any Internet
searches, was unaware that people were reporting fender brackets on the
front bicycle fenders breaking on other bikes on Internet websites, and
had not contacted the customer service department of Pacific Cycle to
see if any other customers had complained of fender brackets breaking.
Outcome: Plaintiffs' verdict for $1.1 million.
Plaintiff's Experts: David A. Mitchell, P.E. is President of MET Ltd., in Cumming, GA, an
engineering consulting firm established in 1995 to provide technical
consulting to individuals, industry, government and organizations in
areas related to bicycles and bicycling. He received his Bachelors
degree in Metallurgical Engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia
in 1971 and completed graduate level coursework thereafter. Mr. Mitchell
completed the Bicycle Mechanics Clinic offered by U.S.A. Cycling and is
a Bicycle Mechanic licensed by the United States Cycling Federation. He
is a licensed professional engineer.
Description: The Plaintiffs alleged that the Pacific Cycle Defendants had imported and
placed into the stream of commerce a bicycle that was inherently
defective and dangerous due to a defective front fender tab, which had
broken within the first week Plaintiff used the bike. On August 2,
2006, the Plaintiff was riding his Pacific Cycle bike, which had been
retrofitted with a 48 cc motor by an EBay seller, Wonderful Creations,
Inc. As he was proceeding to work on the morning of August 2, 2006, he
heard a snap or pop and then was propelled over his handlebars onto the
pavement. The Plaintiff suffered serious injuries to his shoulder and
left wrist, which required a total of five surgeries over the next two
to three years. He had medical expenses of $74,034.29, and he and his
wife had lost wages from their jobs with the City of Tulsa in the amount
of $25,442.77, which were not disputed at trial. The Plaintiffs also
sought and were awarded by the jury additional sums of money for mental
and physical pain and suffering, some slight permanent disability in the
left wrist, slight disfigurement from scars, and deformity from a broken
collar bone sustained in the accident, as well as the wife's stress and
mental anguish associated with her husband's injuries and medical
treatment. The case was presided over by U.S. District Court Judge
Gregory Frizzell.
The Plaintiffs presented testimony from William Coleman with
Analytical & Materials Engineering located in Norman, Oklahoma, that the
front fender bracket was inherently defective and dangerous, either as a
result of some bending and stresses that had been put on the fender
bracket that broke during its manufacturing process in China, or that
it simply was not a thick enough piece of metal. The Plaintiffs also
presented evidence that Pacific Cycle imports over a million bicycles a
year in the U.S. from manufacturing plants in Taiwan and China, making
them the largest importers of bicycles into the U.S. The Plaintiffs
presented evidence that Pacific Cycle had no independent engineering or
testing departments to check the safety and quality of their bikes.
Testimony was that the bike frame and fork was manufactured by a plant
in China, which Pacific Cycle claimed did safety testing and quality
control, but Pacific Cycle was unable to present any documentation to
support that claim. The fender and fender bracket were manufactured by
a different vendor also in China, but Pacific Cycle was unable to even
identify the specific vendor who had manufactured the fender and fender
bracket, and thus, was unable to present any documentation showing that
there was any safety testing or quality control done with regard to the
manufacturing of the fender bracket. Evidence was also presented by the
Plaintiffs that although Pacific Cycle imports approximately 200
different models of bikes into the U.S. market, they have one generic
manual, which is placed in the box in the Chinese and Taiwan plants, and
that manual showed two L brackets in the fender diagram, as opposed to a
single bracket, which was on the bike the Plaintiff was riding, and that
the manual contained no information regarding assembling or tightening
of the fender stays on the bike, which the Pacific Cycle expert, David
Mitchell, claimed may have not been properly tightened by the Plaintiff
when he put the fender on the bike after receiving it from Wonderful
Creations, and may have contributed to the accident.
Pacific Cycle's primary defense to the case was that the
subsequent modification of the bicycle by the EBay seller, Wonderful
Creations, had rendered the bicycle no longer a "bicycle" and that the
vibration of the motor, which had been bolted to the bike frame, had
caused a fatigue fracture of the bracket on the fender. The Pacific
Cycle corporate representative claimed that Pacific Cycle had no
knowledge that people in the United States were making after market
modifications to its bikes by putting motors on them, but the corporate
representative admitted that he had made no efforts such as sending out
an e-mail within the company or a survey to find out if this alleged
lack of knowledge of the after market modification was truly unknown by
all of the employees within the company. The Plaintiff testified that
at the time he decided to purchase a motorized bike that there were
numerous listings on EBay, both for bikes that had already been
retrofitted with the motor from numerous EBay sellers, as well as kits
from which one could install the after market motor themselves. Pacific
Cycle presented testimony from David Mitchell, an engineer from Georgia
and volunteer Olympic bicycle mechanic, who testified that although he
had done no scientific testing and had only examined the bike for
approximately an hour, that the vibration of the motor was an
unforeseeable modification to the bike and in fact had changed the bike
to where it no longer met the definition of a "bicycle", which has to be
solely humanly powered. Mr. Mitchell who does some independent
engineering and testing for other bike companies testified that Pacific
Cycle had their own engineering and testing department, which was
contrary to the Pacific Cycle corporate representative's testimony. Mr.
Mitchell said that Pacific Cycle did not ever hire him to do work on the
front end in testing or designing for products before they went to
market, but did hire him after people make claims of defective products
resulting in Pacific Cycle bike accidents to do forensic work, and that
he had testified at least 20 times at trial or deposition on Pacific
Cycle's behalf over the last four or five years. Mr. Mitchell claimed
that there have not been other reports of fender brackets breaking and
causing accidents, although he admitted that he had done any Internet
searches, was unaware that people were reporting fender brackets on the
front bicycle fenders breaking on other bikes on Internet websites, and
had not contacted the customer service department of Pacific Cycle to
see if any other customers had complained of fender brackets breaking.
Outcome: Plaintiffs' verdict for $1.1 million.
Plaintiff's Experts: David A. Mitchell, P.E. is President of MET Ltd., in Cumming, GA, an
engineering consulting firm established in 1995 to provide technical
consulting to individuals, industry, government and organizations in
areas related to bicycles and bicycling. He received his Bachelors
degree in Metallurgical Engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia
in 1971 and completed graduate level coursework thereafter. Mr. Mitchell
completed the Bicycle Mechanics Clinic offered by U.S.A. Cycling and is
a Bicycle Mechanic licensed by the United States Cycling Federation. He
is a licensed professional engineer.
