I think the whole issue stems from your legal culture, which is spreading over here unfortunately. People used to be responsible for their own actions. Now if something bad happens they see if they can pin the blame on someone else, sue them and get some compensation. In the bizzare world in which we live, cash in the hand rates more highly as a motivator than anything else, personal injury/dismemberment included.
The government then gets pressurised into legislating all sorts of bollix so that people cannot take risks and thereby end up sueing each other. What about that thing on US car mirrors, "vehicles may be closer than they seem"? What about that numbnuts who spilt the McCoffee on her lap. On a McApple Pie - "the filling is hot" - well fark me with a sequoia.. whoudda thought it!!!!
There are now daily adverts on UK daytime TV by ambulance chaser lawyers promising thousands of pounds because you tripped over a cable in the warehouse and mashed your face. So companies have to have an "Inert cable lying on the ground avoidance procedure - part 1, lift foot over cable" inserted into their personnel handbooks. It's depressing for the rest of us who have learned to walk.
