Garden Furniture Attacks!

Injuries involving garden furniture, deckchairs and benches account for 4,500 people going to hospital every year in the United Kingdom. A further 4,800 need hospital treatment after accidents involving furniture in public places such as parks and beaches, according to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.

So before you sink in to a swing seat or dig out the deckchair, consider the potential risks. Here are 5 examples how garden furniture can attack.

1. French Fear of Furniture

Putting up a deck chair can be a little tricky, but us most people can complete the procedure without causing injury to themselves.

However, the French are wary of the beloved summer companion. In France all deck chairs now come with health and safety warnings. In some shops throughout the country deck chairs appeared with the advice: ‘Poor assembly generates the risk of the slicing off of fingers’.

This wariness coincides with doctors seeing a rise in garden furniture related accidents . Some doctors say that foreign tourists, without experience of assembling deck chairs, were far more likely to be involved in an accident.

Well if the French are worried then maybe we should be too?

2. Sun-lounger with a taste for dog

We all said that our dog ate our homework back in our school days, but what about a sun-lounger eating your dog?

When young terrier Ebonyser got trapped in a mechanized recliner, owner Ken Makris didn’t know what to do!

He called 911 and three Chicago fire fighters had to saw apart the piece of furniture to free the scared mutt.

The dog suffered nerve damage following the ordeal but is now said to be “coming along fine”.

3. Furniture on fire!

A patio chair that caught fire in Lake Havasu City, Arizona caused chaos and left local fire-fighters and police scrambling.

A stray match or cigarette had started the fire after it had landed on a patio chair’s cushion. The heat of the chair fire broke a window at the residence, filled the apartment with smoke and charred the window’s casings.

There were no injuries but… the damage was estimated at $1000!

4. Deck chairs of the rich and famous

You may think that movie stars are a little more protected from the everyday injuries that we mere minions suffer.

It would seem however that Rain Man, Dustin Hoffman, isn’t immune to these war wounds of human error.

He tore the tip of his finger clean off when attempting to erect a green canvas chair in the garden of his Kensington home. It shook him up, and according to him “it bled very badly”.

Hoffman continued with: “I’m not going anywhere near that chair.’”

He is thought to be pondering a lawsuit!

5. Severed fingered magician sues Queen of home-ware Martha Stewart

When the stars of consumer lifestyle develop their own range of garden furniture bad things can happen, at least to Magicians.

Patrick Albanese, has slightly less hand for his sleight of hand, and he blames Martha Stewart.
The magician, comedian and hand model has sued the queen of style and Kmart stores over a mishap with a deck chair that cut off part of his left index finger.

Albanese, who co-stars in the long-running comedic play “Triple Espresso,” has asked for an undisclosed amount of money from the retailer and the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc.

He said that the lounge chair collapsed on his finger when he moved it. A relative retrieved the severed finger tip from under his deck.

The lawsuit claimed the Sling Garden Chairs were recalled due to other similar
accidents around the country but the companies did not notify Albanese of the danger.
The suit asks for money to cover medical expenses, lost wages, permanent partial disfigurement and loss of earning capacity.

Martha Stewart may have even more to deal with after numerous cases of her branded glass tables spontaneously shattering! Consider yourself warned!

As you can see, life in the back garden isn’t always as safe as we would like to believe.

So next time you’re relaxing in the sun, remember that garden furniture can be very, very dangerous!