Current Issues in Warnings

Abstract

IntroductionWarnings and warnings-related issues continue to be an important focal point of litigation in the U.S. Many personal injury cases, for example, revolve around questions associated with residual hazards in products, facilities, or user environments -and the steps the manufacturer of a product, or the parties responsible for the safe operation of a facility or environment have taken to mitigate people's exposure to those hazards. If hazards are not eliminated through design and/or guarding, then warnings and other types of precautionary instructions are commonly used to alert, inform, and remind people about the hazard(s) and to tell them what they should do to avoid or at least minimize injury.A significant body of published HFE / Warnings literature over the past several decades has addressed a myriad of issues associated with the proper design, fabrication, and application of warnings and warning systems. However, the continuing stream of warnings-related cases being litigated in courts across the country, serves as an important reminder that warnings issues are not merely abstract and theoretically interesting topics of discussion, but are rather items of concern that can have a significant, real-world impact on the conduct of our daily lives.The four HFE forensic professionals in this panel discussion session provide different but related perspectives on warnings-related applications and case study examples drawn from their respective professional practices. These discussion topics help to provide greater insights into the ways in which warnings-related research and theoretical constructs are translated into warnings experts' opinions in actual court cases. The following are brief summary descriptions of each discussant's presentation.At 7:15 a.m. on April 16, 2007, Seung Hui Cho shot two students in a dorm room on the Virginia Tech (VT) campus. At 7:20 a.m. the Virginia Tech Police Department (VTPD) received a phone call regarding the shooting, and an officer arrived at the room at 7:24 a.m. At 7:51 the Blacksburg Police Department (BPD) was contacted, and by 8:00 a.m. the VTPD and BPD investigation of the shootings was underway.At 7:57 a.m. the Office of the VT Executive Vice President was notified of the shootings. A meeting of the university's Policy Group began at 8:25 a.m., and their agenda included deciding how to respond, including how and when to notify the university community.Classes on the VT campus began at 8:00 a.m. At 9:26 a.m. the VT administration sent an email to campus staff, faculty, and students informing them of the dormitory shooting. The specific message in the email was:"A shooting incident occurred at West Amber Johnston earlier this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating. The university community is urged to be cautious and are asked to contact Virginia Tech Police if you observe anything suspicious or with infor-