Man Injured By Allegedly Defective Exercise Equipment

Case Overview

This case involves a 32-year-old male plaintiff who was injured by a doorway pull-up bar in his home. As the plaintiff was using the bar, the bar cracked and fell off the door frame, causing the plaintiff to break his leg and shatter his kneecap. The weight limit for this product was allegedly 250 pounds but the plaintiff only weighed 170 pounds. The product had been purchased 6 months prior it breaking. It was alleged that a design flaw contributed to this accident. An expert in product design and failure analysis was sought to opine on the incident and determine if the product was defective.

Questions to the Forensic Science expert and their responses

Please briefly describe your experience with product design and failure analysis for sporting goods or related products.

I have experience in failure analysis of materials and finding the root cause of failure due to flaws in design and/or materials defects. As a university professor, I teach and research in areas of materials mechanical properties, product design and development, and materials engineering. I have worked as an expert witness in several failure analysis cases. For this particular case, I would need to inspect evidence and examine any fractured part by a scanning electron microscope.

About the expert

This expert has over 40 years of experience in metallurgical engineering. He earned his MEng in metallurgical engineering from the University of Tehran and a PhD in industrial metallurgy from the University of Birmingham. This expert is a licensed professional engineer in Texas and is an active member of several professional societies including the National Association of Corrosion Engineers, The Material Society, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the American Society for Engineering Education. Previously, he served as a technical director at Rolling Mill and Steel Production Company, as a project director at IRITEC, and as a professor of mechanical engineering at Southern University Baton Rouge. Currently, this expert serves as the principal consultant for an engineering consulting company and is a professor of engineering at a university in Texas.