Monday, November 2, 2009

Ping Pong Tables That Kill!!


Sounds like a scary story, but it is true. Ping pong tables are like most other manufactured products, some are better than others. However there are some things to consider when it comes to safety. Make not mistake, people have been killed by ping pong tables. Those warnings that are plastered all over the box, instructions and tables are there for a reason, many companies have been sued over what people believe to be faulty equipment. But most of the time, the equipment is not to blame.

People are people and they tend to do stupid things sometimes. Dance on ping pong tables. Using ping pong tables for storage, placing hundreds of pounds of material on top of them. The fact is that most ping pong tables do have a limit as to how much weight they can hold. Some hold more than others, but there is a finite amount that you can stack on top of them. People should keep in mind what a product is made for and try to limit its use to that task. There was a story about a lady who used her toaster to dry her hair. When her hair caught on fore, she sued the manufacturer. The court found that since the toaster company did NOT list the fact that hair could not be dried in the toaster that they were liable for damages. To this day toasters are made so that the bread must be loaded from the top, not from the sides as it was before the court ruling. The point here is that if most people would use a product for the purpose in which it was intended to be used, there would not be many problems.

The picture above is on the line. The customer placed too much weight on the table while playing. By placing his hand on the table he was in violation of the use of the table. During normal play on a ping pong table, you cannot place your hand on the table. Therefore when he did put his hand on the ping pong table and pushed down with his weight, the table collapsed.