Thursday, April 2, 2009

Burger King Settles Jacob Buckett's Fall Down Injury For An Alleged 20 Million Dollars.

A Burger King franchise in Southern California has apparently agreed to pay $20 million to an 11 year old child, Jacob Buckett, who was severely injured in one of their playgrounds. Apparently in August of 2005, Jacob Buckett (8 years old at the time,) his father (Kevin Buckett) and 3-year-old sister visited Burger King in Temecula, Calif. Jacob climbed up the horizontal support poles of the play structure and fell, hitting his head on the tile floor. Jacob suffered a traumatic brain injury. He was in a coma for two months. When he got out of the hospital six months later, he was diagnosed with permanent, lifelong impairments.

Plaintiffs contend that that Burger King knew the jungle gym was dangerous but never bothered to fix the problem. Significant safety risks included the absence of "no-climb netting" around the structural poles and lack of floor padding. There apparently had been prior accidents but admittedly less secure.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is a lot of money for an accident where a kid climbed what was not meant to be climbed!

Ms Calabaza said...

Wow! I wonder how debilitated this child is at present...sounds like it must have been a very serious injury.

katfish said...

If Burger King "settled" for $20 million this boys injuries must have been pretty severe.....and if that's the case, $20 million "might" be enough to pay for the long term care this boy may need for the rest of his life.

Anonymous said...

Severe injury, but where is the liability?

katfish said...

"Plaintiffs contend that that Burger King knew the jungle gym was dangerous but never bothered to fix the problem. Significant safety risks included the absence of "no-climb netting" around the structural poles and lack of floor padding. There apparently had been prior accidents but admittedly less secure."

Evidently Burger King felt there was liability on their part. Why else settle for $20 MILLION without going to trial?

It is unfortunate that parents don't watch their kids closer and pay closer attention to where they allow them to play, ie...hard floor under a climb structure with no padding. They will have a lifetime to mull that over. :`(

Anonymous said...

The injuries were so bad B.K. could not risk a 50 Million dollar verdict. Liability was questionable as a great deal of fault might be on the plaintiff's parents for not watching the child more carefully.

Anonymous said...

The injuries were so bad B.K. could not risk a 50 Million dollar verdict. Liability was questionable as a great deal of fault might be on the plaintiff's parents for not watching the child more carefully.

katfish said...

There are no "winners" here IMO.

Anonymous said...

20 million can go along way toward making things better.