New safety measures after child almost loses eye in store
Kmart in New Zealand has introduced new safety measures after a 6-year-old girl almost lost an eye in an accident at an Australian store.
Cecilia Chen was shopping with her grandmother at a Sydney Kmart in January 2020 when she slipped and fell onto a metal clothes hook.
Chen’s right eyelid was almost completely torn off in the incident, one of several cases of children being injured on the metal hooks at Kmart and Target stores, Australian media reported. On Monday, a Kmart spokesperson said rubber caps for hang rail arms, like the one on which Chen was injured, were rolled out across its stores after the Sydney incident.
That included its New Zealand stores, where the caps had been in use for the past 18 months.
The company was unaware of any similar incidents in New Zealand during that time, she said, but could not say for certain if there had been incidents before the rubber caps were introduced.
Chen’s injury required two major surgeries to repair and she was left with a permanent scar, Chen’s mother, Jill Huang, told Australian news website 9news.com.au.
It was possible she would need further surgery as well as sessions with a psychologist to treat her anxiety. Huang took Kmart to court, where the company was recently ordered to pay AU$60,000 ($NZ65,000) in compensation for the accident. Kmart had previously admitted to the court that it had breached its duty of care to Chen.
Prior to the court case, the company’s lawyers had offered Huang a settlement, which she rejected, the website reported.
By not settling out of court, she became liable for Kmart’s legal fees as well as her own, which would require most of the $60,000 compensation.
Any money left over would go towards potential ongoing costs for Chen, she said. Despite the court ruling in her favour, Huang said it did not feel like a victory, and she planned to lodge an appeal.