Lawsuit says Walmart bag's failure led to Nebraska woman's death

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20130828/NEWS/130828921/1707#lawsuit-says-walmart-bag-s-failure-led-to-nebraska-woman-s-death

By Russell Hubbard

A Nebraska family has sued Walmart Stores Inc. for wrongful death, saying Lynette Freis died last year after an overloaded plastic bag broke, cutting her skin and leading to infections that killed her.

The woman’s estate sued Arkansas-based Walmart, as well as the manufacturer and the distributor of the plastic shopping bag, in Sarpy County District Court in July. This month, it was moved to U.S. District Court in Omaha.

The suit says that in April 2010 Freis left the Bellevue Walmart with two 42-ounce cans of food and a two-pound bag of rice that a store clerk packaged into a single plastic shopping bag.

On the way to the car, the suit says, the bag broke. A can cut Freis on the right big toe, which it fractured, according to the lawsuit.

FULL story at link.

[JeffHead]

1. How much you wanna bet....

Wallly world tries to push this lawsuit onto the bag supplier? You know because of defective bags or something.

[Ms. Toad]

12. They were sued by the woman's family already. n/t

[DJ13]

2. You can breathe on those bags and rip them apart

The thinnest grocery bags I've ever seen.

And yeah, they train the checkers to overload them to save money on bags.

[dionysus]

3. when i'm in the grocery store, I throw em for a loop and ask for doubled paper bags

the paper bags can be used for many useful things.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. They are as sturdy as can be

compared to Dollar store bags.

[dionysus]

6. in the mid 90's, in high school, i was a bag boy in a grocery store.

every register had a bagger, now baggers don't exist cause it's cheaper to make the cashier do it. it was all paper then... I was bagging when they first came out. customers hated them. the original ones seems pretty strong. just a few batches of bags later, they became flimsier and flimsier... to this day I get paper bags when I can

[Travis_0004]

8. I think with the new bagging system, baggers are not needed

The cashier scans the item, and puts it right into a bag. They turn the carousel when a bag is full and put it in the next bag. Its actually a pretty good system, and it wouldn't surprise me to see all stores switch to something similar when they upgrade their checkout lanes.

[Peregrine]

9. They still have them at the Ft. Leavenworth commissary

The baggers are prisoners. Maybe in a few months you can catch manning bagging groceries.

[dionysus]

11. the only place i see with the carousel is walmart around here. usually they have the bags in between

the cashier and the conveyor belt.

anyways, it always takes 5 or 6 plastic bags to hold what two paper bags can.

I do agree the carousel device speeds up the process a wee bit

[Raine]

17. Some Kmarts in the Los Angeles area have those carousels too. nt

[Logical]

4. Wow, another joke of a law suit. Slimy lawyer I assume. n-t

[dionysus]

7. yeah. those are some cheap ass flimsy bags,but lawsuit worthy? not really

[Omaha Steve]

16. She died

Joke of a DUer perhaps?

[Logical]

18. I usually like your stuff.....

But that is a silly thing to say! People die from accidents every day. Sometimes it is no ones fault.
It is sad but filing a frivolous lawsuit does not make it better.

[HolyMoley]

10. Better call Saul

The legal system in this country is fucked even more than I thought if this case gos forward.

[pokerfan]

15. A lawsuit sounds good, Saul, but who can I sue?

[jmowreader]

13. It's either a defective bag or it got torn somehow

Two 42-ounce cans of food plus two pounds of rice comes to less than eight pounds...even in a Walmart bag that's reasonable.

[BainsBane]

14. I hate cheap plastic bags

There is one supermarket here which has bags so thin, they've prompted me to break way too many items.

I have my own bags I bring grocery shopping, but I don't always remember them.

[treestar]

19. Wow, that's probably not foreseeable

as a possible result of a badly packed bag. The toe injury, but death? Holy cow!