I recently lost my vision in one eye (permanently) due to lack of maintenance (on there end) on equipment that I rented. I rented a excavator from a rental company and shortly after using it part of the machinery (the tooth from the bucket) flew off and hit me in the eye permanently blinding me. Also there was no windshield on this to pull down for protection. Is there a legal case to this? The piece that hit me was approx. 3quot; wide x 6quot; long x 2quot; thick of solid steel, hitting me at approx. 30-40 mph and almost knocking me out. I'm not talking about a little piece of metal that would bounce off of safety glasses. The metal of course did not actually go into my eye but rather hit me so hard it smashed my eyeball flat. Also, we found out later that the bolts holding the tooth on were not the ones made for this excavator, were not the right size and were not hardened bolts. They should not have been used period.
This is why God invented safety glasses. Since you chose not to wear them any chance you have of a claim has likely gone down the toilet.
Were you wearing safety glasses?
Sounds to me like you might have a case unless somewhere in your rental aggrement there is a liability waiver realeasing the rental company of any liabilty in the event of injury but with the wrong bolts being inplace could be neglagence
You will probably have no problem at all finding an attorney to take the case on a contingency basis. You don't pay them anything unless they win the lawsuit at which time they get 30% of the award. Just phone some injury attorneys and ask. The fact that you signed a waiver is meaningless. Waivers usually aren't worth the paper they're printed on. The fact that you weren't wearing safety glasses might reduce the award or might not matter at all if there is evidence that wearing them wouldn't have avoided the injury.
Depends what you signed when you picked up the rental. If I was a company owner I would attack you first as threat response.
