Re: Liability...the thread that will not die..

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>

Hi Steve,

Although this does not seem like it is really on topic, you do hit on a
very good point (IMHO).  People with guns are supposed to know how not to
accidently kill themselves and others.  The "rules" and "do and don't" are
pretty clear cut.  Those accidents are not new or unexpected when ones goes
back and looks at the accident...

Cars have all kinds of rules for operation.  However, "things happen".  You
blow a tire, A rock hits the wind shield, a bee lands on your nose, a
damaged break line fails, the guy in front of your slows down too fast ;-))
....  Unforeseen things can happen easily and they often do.

Doctors have a few rules but they pretty much take what ever the ambulance
brings in and they try to fix it in the few minutes they have before the
person dies anyway.  Sort of like someone brings in a Tesla coil they found
smashed all over the street and you have to get it working in 3 minutes...
Mistakes will be made...  They often don't have time to do weeks of tests
and study...  Plus, figuring out what is wrong with someone in many cases
is an "art".  I bet I could show you some Tesla coils that you could not
make work in three minutes without making any mistakes :-))

I think Tesla coils are close to the used car scenario.  You sell someone a
car and you try to make sure the brakes, tires, seat belts... all work
properly to the best of your knowledge.  However, once they buy the car,
they are pretty much on their own.  If they drive it into a tree, that's
not your fault.  If the steering fails, that is their problem since it is
then "their" car...

So perhaps the disclaimers about selling used cars would be pretty close.
"as is" "no warranty" "buyer assumes all risks", "you are buying a
dangerous piece of experimental electrical equipment that has many known
and unknown dangers"...  In other words, once they drive it away, it is
"ALL" theirs...  Tesla coils are strange devices, so they are not nearly as
well known as cars.  So maybe extra emphasis should be put on you are
buying and assuming the risk of owning a really strange high voltage device...

Cheers,

	Terry


At 09:25 AM 7/17/2001 -0700, you wrote:
>Subject: Guns & Doctors ??????
>
>Number of physicians in the US: 700,000.
>Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year: 120,000.
>Accidental deaths per physician.... 0.171
>(U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services)
>
>Number of gun owners in the US: 80,000,000
>Number of accidental gun deaths per year (all age groups) 1,500.
>Accidental deaths per gun owner: 0.0000188
>Statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun
>owners. Not everyone has a gun, but everyone has at least one doctor. Please
>alert your friends to this alarming threat. We must ban doctors before this
>gets out of hand.
>
>I have withheld the statistics on lawyers for fear that the shock could
>cause people to seek medical aid.
>
>______________________________________________________________________
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
>To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
>Sent: Monday, July 16, 2001 9:41 PM
>Subject: Liability...the thread that will not die..
>
>
>> Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
><jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>
>>
>>
>> Sure, lots of obviously dangerous things are sold, on E-bay, and
>otherwise.
>>  Consider, though, the difference:
>>
>> Roughly half the housholds in America have one or more guns (or, at least,
>> there are half as many guns as there are households... I don't recall the
>> basis of the statistic, but the net is, there's a lot)
>>
>> Every household has sharp kitchen knives
>>
>> A tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of the households has HV equipment of any
>kind,
>> lethal or not.
>>
>>
>> Point #1:
>>
>> A "reasonable man" would be expected to know that knives, guns, ladders,
>> lawnmowers, power saws, etc. are dangerous.  It's not so clear that an
>> average "reasonable man" would have the same level of knowledge about a
>> tesla coil.
>>
>> Point #2:
>>
>> The huge number of folks possessing kitchen knives and various and sundry
>> firearms means that not only are most folks familiar with them, their
>> hazards, and their use, but that the probability of them being outlawed or
>> restricted excessively is quite low. This is definitely not the case for
>HV
>> equipment.  No congressman or senator or assemblyman or city council
>> member, etc. is going to worry about the re-election impact of banning
>> tesla coils.  They would have to be insane to contemplate banning or
>> restricting kitchen knives.
>>
>>
>>
>> > forgive my nievety of the law, but do gun manufacturors get sued when
>> > > someone is inadvertantly shot?
>>
>>
>>
>