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Wego Kite Tube: Opinion Piece by Lawyer Fred Pritzker

I represent people injured by unsafe products. I know how survivors of defective products suffer when manufacturers fail to follow basic safety principles in the design and marketing of their products (despite a highly-detailed and easily-accessible body of knowledge regarding product safety).

After thirty years in the practice of law, I know I should not be surprised by the glaring failures and painful ironies associated with defective products. But sometimes there are crystalline examples that merit highlighting and point to the need for changes in our system of product safety.

On April 28, 2006, the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association announced its Sports Product of the Year Award on the nationally televised Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends." The winner was Wego Kite Tube manufactured by Sportsstuff, Inc. of Omaha, Nebraska.

The Wego Kite Tube is a 10-foot-wide, circular, yellow, inflatable watercraft designed to be towed behind a power boat. A rider in the tube becomes airborne by pulling on handles attached to the floor of the tube. On its website, Sportsstuff rhapsodized that one could "Take flight with the WEGO KITE TUBE! . . . Whip across the water like a deck tube, or fly through the air like a bird! Experience the thrill of flight as you rise above the water, reaching incredible heights, leaving nothing but adrenaline in your wake! . . ."

In a stunning reversal, less than 75 days after it was proclaimed Product of the Year, the manufacturer, in connection with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), withdrew the product and voluntarily recalled about 19,000 Wego Kite Tubes. This action followed reports to the CPSC of 39 injury incidents, with 29 of those resulting in medical treatment. Sportsstuff had also received reports of two deaths in the United States and a variety of serious injuries.

Ironically, one of the sponsors of the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association competition won by The Wego Kite Tube was Stratus Product Liability Insurance Services, a company that specializes in the placement of product liability insurance for sporting goods manufacturers.

How did this debacle occur and what does it say about the safety and regulation of such dangerous products?

First, it demonstrates a lack of adequate testing. No manufacturer should be allowed to market and sell a product designed to fly adults, teenagers and children through the air at life-threatening heights without a rigorous testing program designed to objectively validate the safety of the product.

In this case, one could certainly argue that the testing of the Wego Kite Tube occurred after the product was sold and consisted of the broken bones and serious injuries incurred by users who had a right to expect that the $600 inflatable product was proven to be safe before it left the hands of the manufacturer.

Second, both the product and the material that accompanies it must provide detailed and specific warnings about the foreseeable dangers associated with the product. As videos of repeated crashes involving this product graphically show, the Wego kite tube is prone to ascend and then lose control so quickly that users are powerless to avoid horrendous crashes. Of course, no such warnings or videos were ever furnished to purchasers and users of this product.

The CPSC evidently acted quickly to facilitate notice of the voluntary recall but only after many people had already been injured or killed. Given the inherent danger associated with a product designed to fly through the air, how is it that a regulatory agency is called to act only after the public is harmed? Doesn't this suggest that manufacturers of products so inherently dangerous should be required to submit affirmative proof of their safety before they are allowed to sell them to the public?

Tubes that fly through the air are not like drugs and medical devices that save lives and cure disease, yet such drugs and devices require pre-approval before they can be marketed to the public. When a product like the Wego Kite Tube can be sold without any confirmation of its safety, isn't it fair to ask that we reevaluate the system by which product safety is supposed to be assured?

The Sportsstuff, Inc. Wego Kite Tube recall involved approximately 19,000 units. According to the company's website, each tube retailed for almost $600. Despite the dangers, injuries and deaths associated with the product, the company is only offering purchasers an exchange for another company product rather than a refund or some other remedy. In other words, the company is likely to still make money on the sale of this recalled but still dangerous product. How fair is that?

Fred Pritzker is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and the Million Dollar Advocates Forum. He has also achieved status as a Certified Civil Advocate from the National Board of Trial Advocacy and as a Certified Trial Specialist from the Minnesota State Bar Association. He has been selected by his peers as a Top 100 Minnesota Super Lawyer and Top 40 Minnesota Personal Injury Lawyer. His peers also selected him for inclusion in the 2005-2006 edition of The Best Lawyers in America. To contact Fred Pritzker, call toll-free at 1-888-377-8900 , e-mail info@pritzkerlaw.com or fill out our online consultation form.  

Pritzker | Ruohonen & Associates, P.A.
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